tihvaxy  of  t:he  trheolo^ical  ^tminaxy 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 

The  Estate  of  the 
Rev.  John  B.  Wledinger 

BS  2505  .W497 

Whyte,  Alexander,  1836-1921 

The  apostle  Paul 


THE   APOSTLE   PAUL 


^>^'^ 

\^:. 


Fum 


'is 


V^',.  .'^ 


THE  APOSTCE  PAUL 


EY 


ALEXANDER  WHYTE,  D.D. 


'i 


PUBLISHED     BY 

JENNINGS  AND  GRAHAM 

CINCINNATI 


TO  THE  STUDENTS  OF  DIVINITY 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

As  the  following  sixteen  papers  form  a  little 
study  by  themselves,  it  has  been  thought  advis- 
able to  separate  them  from  the  volume  of  Bible 
Characters  in  which  they  originally  appeared. 
The  rest  of  the  matter  belongs  to  the  same  line 
of  study. 

A.  W. 


CONTENTS 


LECTURES 

I.    PAUL    AS    A    STUDENT  .... 
II.    PAUL    AS    APPREHENDED    OF    CHRIST    JESUS 

III.  PAUL    IN    ARABIA  .... 

IV.  Paul's  visit  to  Jerusalem  to  see  peter 

v.    PAUL  AS    A    PREACHER 

VI.    PAUL  AS    A    PASTOR      .... 

VII.    PAUL  AS    A    CONTROVERSIALIST       . 

VIII.    PAUL  AS    A    MAN    OF    PRAYER 

IX.    PAUL  AS    A    BELIEVING    MAN 

X.    PAUL  AS    THE    CHIEF    OF    SINNERS 

XI.  Paul's  thorn  that  was  given  him  . 

XII.    PAUL    AS    SOLD    UNDER    SIN  . 

XIII.  Paul's  blamelessness  as  a  minister 

XIV.  PAUL   AS   an    evangelical    MYSTIC 

XV.  Paul's   great    heaviness    and    continual 

SORROW    in    his    heart    . 
XVI.    PAUL    the    aged  .... 


PAGE 

13 

25 

37 
47 
55 

63 

75 

85 

97 

107 

117 

127 

137 
149 

161 
171 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 


SERMONS 

I.  THE    BLOOD    OF    GOD    , 

II.  FAITH    IN    HIS    BLOOD 

IIL  HIM    THAT    WORKETH    NOT 

IV.  UNDER    GRACE     . 

V.  THE    LIFE    OF    FAITH    . 


PAGB 

193 

201 
209 

215 


WALTER  MARSHALL 

AN    APPRECIATION  .... 


225 


SIXTEEN  LECTURES 


THE    APOSTLE    PAUL 


PAUL   AS   A   STUDENT 

PAUL  was  not  born  in  the  Holy  Land  like 
Jesus  Christ,  and  like  Peter  and  James  and 
John.  But  Paul  was  proud  of  his  birthplace,  as 
he  might  very  well  be.  For  Tarsus  was  a  great 
city  in  a  day  of  great  cities.  Athens  was  a  great 
city,  Corinth  was  a  great  city,  and  Ephesus  was 
a  great  city.  But  Tarsus  in  some  respects  was 
a  greater  city  than  any  of  them.  Jerusalem 
stood  alone,  and  Rome  stood  alone  ;  but  Tarsus 
engraved  herself  on  her  coins  as  the  Metropolis  of 
the  East,  and  her  proud  claim  was  not  disputed. 
An  immense  industry  was  carried  on  in  the  work- 
shops of  Tarsus,  and  an  immense  import  and 
export  trade  was  carried  on  in  her  docks.  Nor 
were  the  eminent  men  of  Tarsus  mere  manufac- 
turers and  merchants  ;  they  were  men  of  education 
and  refinement  of  manners  also.  But  SauFs  father 
was  not  one  of  the  eminent  men  of  Tarsus.  He 
was  one  of  the  Hebrew  dispersion,  and  he  was 
making  his  living  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow  in  that 
industrious  Greek  city.  And  thus  it  was  that 
Saul  his  son  was  far  better  acquainted  with  the 

13 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

workshops  of  Tarsus  than  with  its  schools  or  its 
colleges.  Saul  of  Tarsus  was  not  born  with  the 
silver  spoon  in  his  mouth  any  more  than  was 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  his  future  Master.  It  was  one 
of  the  remarkable  laws  of  that  remarkable  people 
that  every  father  was  expected,  was  compelled 
indeed,  to  send  his  son  first  to  a  school  and  then 
to  a  workshop.  Rich  and  poor  sat  on  the  same 
school-seat ;  and  rich  and  poor  alike  went  from 
school  to  learn  an  honest  trade.  Rabbi  Joseph 
turned  the  mill.  Rabbi  Juda  was  a  baker.  Rabbi 
Ada  and  Rabbi  Jose  were  fishermen  ;  and,  may 
we  not  add,  Rabbi  Peter  and  Rabbi  John  ?  And 
so  on :  woodcutters,  leatherdressers,  blacksmiths, 
carpenters.  And  thus  it  was  that  Paul,  again  and 
again,  held  up  his  hands  in  the  pulpit,  and  at  the 
prisoner's  bar,  and  said, '  These  hands,  as  you  see, 
are  full  of  callosities  and  scars,  because  they  have 
all  along  ministered  to  mine  own  necessities,  and 
to  the  necessities  of  those  who  have  been  depen- 
dent on  me.' 

Saul  of  Tarsus,  like  Timothy  of  Lystra,  from  a 
child  knew  the  Holy  Scriptures.  And  thus,  no 
doubt,  there  was  found  among  his  old  parchments 
after  his  death  a  Table  of  Rules  and  Regulations 

o 

for  his  college  conduct  in  Jerusalem,  as  good  as 
William  Law's  Rules  for  his  college  conduct  in 
Cambridge  ;  better  Rules  they  could  not  be.  But 
there  is  one  possibility  in  Saul's  student  days  in 
Jerusalem  that  makes  our  hearts  beat  fast  in  our 
bosoms  to  think  of  it.  'And  the  Child  grew,' 
we  read  in  a  contemporary  biography,  '  and  waxed 


AS  A  STUDENT 

strong  in  spirit,  filled  with  wisdom ;  and  the 
grace  of  God  was  upon  Him.  Now  His  parents 
went  up  to  Jerusalem  every  year  at  the  feast 
of  the  passover.  And  when  He  was  twelve  years 
old,  they  went  up  to  Jerusalem  after  the  custom 
of  the  feast.  And  it  came  to  pass  after  three 
days  they  found  Him  in  the  temple,  sitting  in  the 
midst  of  the  doctors,  both  hearing  them  and 
asking  them  questions.'  Now  Gamaliel  would  be 
almost  sure  to  be  one  of  those  astonished  doctors ; 
and  what  more  likely  than  that  he  had  taken 
his  best  scholar  up  to  the  temple  to  explain  the 
passover  to  him  that  day  ?  And  did  not  the 
young  carpenter  from  Nazareth,  and  the  young 
weaver  from  Tarsus,  exchange  glances  of  sympathy 
and  shake  hands  of  love  that  day  at  the  gate  of 
the  temple  ?  Are  there  sports  of  providence  like 
that  in  the  Divine  Mind  ?  asked  one  of  his  like- 
minded  students  at  Rabbi  Duncan  one  day.  Yes, 
and  No,  was  the  wise  old  doctor's  answer. 

Now  the  first  instruction,  as  I  think,  intended  to 
us  out  of  Saul's  student  days  is  this — that  the 
finest  minds  in  every  generation  should  study  for 
the  Christian  ministry.  Perhaps  the  very  finest 
mind  that  had  been  born  among  men  since  the 
beginning  of  the  world  entered  on  the  study  of  Old 
Testament  theology  when  Saul  of  Tarsus  sat  down 
at  Gamaliel's  feet.  And  all  Saul's  fine  and  fast 
maturing  mind  will  soon  be  needed  now.  For  a 
work  lay  before  that  weaver  boy  of  Tarsus  second 
only  to  the  work  that  lay  before  that  carpenter 
boy  of  Nazareth,  though   second   to  that  by  an 

15 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

infinite  interval.  At  the  same  time,  there  has 
been  no  other  work  predestinated  to  mere  mortal 
man  to  do  for  God  and  man  to  be  spoken  of  in 
the  same  day  with  this  weaver  boy's  fore-ordained 
work.  For  even  after  the  Lamb  of  God  had  said 
of  His  work, — it  is  finished  !  how  unfinished  and 
incomplete  our  New  Testament  would  have  been 
without  the  life  and  the  work  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 
There  was  a  deep  harmony  pre-established  from 
all  eternity  between  the  work  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
the  mind  and  the  heart  of  Paul  His  apostle.  No 
other  subject  in  all  the  world  but  the  Divine 
Person  and  the  redeeming  work  of  Jesus  Christ 
could  have  afforded  an  outlet  and  an  opportunity 
and  an  adequate  scope  for  PauPs  magnificent 
mind.  While,  on  the  other  hand,  the  law  of  God 
and  the  cross  of  Christ  would  have  remained  to 
this  day  but  half-revealed  mysteries,  had  it  not 
been  for  God's  revelation  of  His  Son  in  Paul ;  and 
had  it  not  been  for  PauFs  intellectual  and  spiritual 
capacity  to  receive  that  revelation,  and  to  expound 
it  and  preach  it.  Every  man  who  has  read  PauPs 
Epistles  with  the  eyes  of  his  understanding  in 
light,  and  with  his  heart  on  fire,  must  have  con- 
tinually exclaimed,  What  a  gift  to  a  man  is  a  fine 
mind,  and  that  mind  wholly  given  up  to  Jesus 
Christ !  Let  our  finest  minds,  then,  devote  them- 
selves to  the  study  of  Christology.  Other  subjects 
may,  or  may  not,  be  exhausted ;  other  callings 
may,  or  may  not,  be  overcrowded  ;  but  there  is 
plenty  of  room  in  the  topmost  calling  of  all, 
and  there  is  an  ever-opening  and  an  ever-deepening 
i6 


AS  A  STUDENT 

interest  there.  No  wonder,  then,  that  it  has  been 
a  University  tradition  in  Scotland  that  our  finest 
minds  have  all  along  entered  the  Divinity  Hall. 
The  other  walks  and  callings  of  human  life  both 
need,  and  will  reward,  the  best  minds  that  can  be 
spared  to  them,  but  let  the  service  of  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  first  be  filled.  To 
annotate  the  Iliad,  or  the  Symposium,  or  the 
Commedia ;  to  build  up  and  administer  an 
empire ;  to  command  in  a  battle  for  freedom  by 
sea  or  by  land  ;  to  create  and  bequeath  a  great 
and  enriching  business ;  to  conduct  an  influential 
newspaper ;  to  be  the  rector  of  a  great  school,  and 
so  on, — these  are  all  great  services  done  to  our 
generation  when  we  have  the  talent,  and  the 
character,  and  the  opportunity,  to  do  them.  But 
to  master  Paul,  as  Paul  mastered  Moses  and 
Christ ;  to  annotate,  and  illustrate,  and  bring 
freshly  home  to  ten  thousand  readers,  the 
Galatians,  or  the  Romans,  or  the  Colossians  ;  to 
have  eyes  to  see  what  Israel  ought  to  do,  and  to 
have  the  patience,  and  the  courage,  to  lead  a 
great  church  to  do  it ;  to  feed,  and  to  feed  better 
and  better  for  a  lifetime,  the  mind  and  the  heart 
of  a  congregation  of  God's  people,  and  then  to 
depart  to  be  with  Christ, — let  the  finest  minds  and 
the  deepest  and  richest  hearts  in  every  new  genera- 
tion fall  down  while  they  are  yet  young  and  say, 
Lord  Jesus,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do  with 
my  life,  and  with  whatsoever  talents  Thou  hast 
intrusted  to  me  ? 

And,    then,    the    best    of    all     callings    being 
B  17 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

chosen,  the  better  his  mind  and  the  better  his 
heart  are,  the  more  profit,  to  employ  Paul's  own 
word  about  himself,  will  be  made  by  the  true 
student.  For  one  thing,  the  better  his  mind,  the 
more  industrious,  as  a  rule,  the  student  of  divinity 
will  be.  And  the  absolutely  utmost  industry 
in  this  supreme  department  of  study  is  simply 
imperative  and  indispensable.  An  unindustrious 
divinity  student  should  be  drummed  out  of  the 
Hall  as  soon  as  he  is  discovered  intruding  himself 
into  it.  With  what  a  hunger  for  his  books,  and 
with  what  heavenward  vows  and  oaths  of  work, 
young  Saul  would  set  out  from  Tarsus  to  Jerusalem ! 
Our  own  best  students  come  up  to  our  divinity 
seats  with  thrilling  and  thanksgiving  hearts,  and 
it  is  only  they  who  have  such  hearts  who  can  at 
all  enter  into  SauPs  mind  and  heart  and  imagina- 
tion as  he  descended  Olivet  and  entered  Jerusalem 
and  saw  his  name  set  down  at  last  on  GamaliePs 
roll  of  the  sons  of  the  prophets.  Gamaliel  would 
have  no  trouble  with  Saul,  unless  it  was  to  supply 
him  with  books,  and  to  answer  his  questions. 
'  In  all  my  experience  I  never  had  a  scholar  like 
Saul  of  Tarsus,'  Gamaliel  would  often  afterwards 
say.  And  SauFs  class-fellows  would  tell  all  their 
days  what  a  help  and  what  a  protection  it  was  to 
be  beside  Saul.  '  We  entered  the  regent's  class 
that  year,"*  writes  James  Melville  in  his  delightful 
Diary,  *  and  he  took  up  Aristotle's  Logic  with  us. 
He  had  a  little  boy  that  served  him  in  his 
chambers,  called  David  Elistone,  who,  among 
thirty-six  scholars,  so  many  were  we  in  the  class, 
i8 


AS  A  STUDENT 

was  by  far  the  best.  This  boy  he  caused  to  wait 
on  me  and  confer  with  me,  and  well  it  was  for  me, 
for  his  genius  and  his  judgment  passed  mine  as  far 
as  the  eagle  the  owlet.  In  the  multiplication  of 
propositions,  in  the  conversion  of  syllogisms,  in 
the  perns  asinorum,  etc.,  he  was  as  well  read  as  I 
was  in  counting  my  finsrers.  This,  I  mark  as  a 
special  cause  of  thankfulness.'  And  young  Saul  of 
Tarsus  would  be  just  another  David  Elistone  in 
Gamaliel's  school.  And  you  Edinburgh  students 
of  divinity  must  be  as  industrious  and  as  successful 
as  ever  Saul  was  in  Jerusalem,  or  little  Elistone  in 
St.  Andrews.  And  you  have  far  more  reason. 
For  you  have  far  better  teachers,  and  a  far  better 
subject,  and  a  far  better  prospect,  than  ever  Saul 
had.  You  are  not  eternally  fore-ordained,  indeed, 
to  write  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  or  the  Epistle 
to  the  Ephesians.  But  you  are  chosen,  and  called, 
and  matriculated,  to  do  the  next  best  thing  to 
that.  You  are  called  to  master  those  masterpieces 
of  Paul,  so  as  to  live  experimentally  upon  them 
all  your  student  life,  and  then  you  are  to  teach 
and  preach  them  to  your  people  better  and  better 
all  your  pulpit  and  pastoral  life.  You  are  to 
work  with  your  hands,  if  need  be ;  you  are  to  sell 
your  bed,  if  need  be,  as  Coleridge  commands  you, 
in  order  to  buy  Calvin  on  the  Romans,  and  Luther 
on  the  Galatians,  and  Goodwin  on  the  Ephesians^ 
and  Davenant  on  the  Colossians,  and  Hooker  on 
Justification,  and  '  that  last  word  on  the  subject,' 
Marshairs  Gospel  Mystery  of  Sanctification ;  and 
you  are  to  husband-up  your  priceless  and  irrecover- 

19 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

able  hours  to  such  studies,  as  you  shall  give  account 
at  the  day  of  a  divinity  student's  judgment. 
You  are  to  feed  your  people,  when  you  have  got 
them  committed  of  Christ  to  your  charge,  vi^ith 
the  finest  of  the  wheat,  and  with  honey  out  of  the 
rock.  And  that,  better  and  better  all  your  life, 
till  your  proud  people  shall  make  their  boast  in 
God  about  you,  as  the  proud  people  of  Anwoth 
made  their  boast  about  that  great  genius,  and  great 
scholar,  and  great  theologian,  and  great  preacher, 
and  great  pastor.  Master  Samuel  Rutherford. 

'  Give  attendance  to  reading,'  was  PauPs  old- 
age  reminiscence  of  his  student  days,  in  the  form 
of  a  counsel  to  young  Timothy.  '  Paul  has  not 
lost  his  delight  in  books,  even  when  he  is  near  his 
death,'  says  Calvin.  And  I  myself  owe  so  much 
to  good  books  that  I  cannot  stop  myself  on  this 
subject  as  long  as  I  see  a  single  student  sitting 
before  me.  I  have  a  thousand  times  had  Thomas 
Boston's  experience  of  good  books.  'I  plied  my 
books.  After  earnestly  plying  my  books,  I  felt 
my  heart  begin  to  grow  better.  I  always  find  that 
my  health  and  my  heart  are  the  better  according 
as  I  ply  my  books.'  But  you  will  correct  me  that 
Paul  could  not  ply  the  great  books  that  Thomas 
Boston  plied  to  his  own  salvation,  and  to  the 
salvation  of  his  people  in  Simprin  and  Ettrick. 
Well,  then,  all  the  more,  ply  your  pure  Bible  as 
Paul  and  Timothy  did,  and  your  profiting,  like 
Paul's  profiting  and  Timothy's,  will  soon  appear 
unto  all.  Plying  your  English  Bible  even,  your 
profiting  will  soon  appear  in  your  English  style, 
20 


AS  A  STUDENT 

both  spoken  and  written.  It  will  appear  in  the 
scriptural  stateliness  and  the  holy  order  of  your 
pulpit  prayers  also.  Your  profiting  will  appear 
also  in  the  strength,  and  the  depth,  and  the 
spirituality,  and  the  experimentalness,  and  the 
perennial  freshness,  of  your  teaching  and  your 
preaching.  '  Paul  knew  his  Old  Testament  so  well,' 
says  Dean  Farrar  in  his  splendid  Life  of  St,  Paul, 
'  that  his  sentences  are  constantly  moulded  by  its 
rhythm,  and  his  thoughts  are  incessantly  coloured 
by  its  expressions.' 

But,  all  the  time — and  it  startles  and  staggers 
us  to  hear  it — Saul  was  living  in  ignorance  and  in 
unbelief.  They  are  his  own  remorseful  words, 
written  by  his  own  pen  long  afterwards — ignorance 
and  unbelief.  The  finest  of  minds,  the  best  of 
educations,  sleepless  industiy,  blameless  life,  and 
all :  with  all  that,  the  aged  apostle  shudders  to 
look  back  on  his  student-days  of  ignorance  and 
unbelief.  What  in  the  world  does  he  mean  ? 
Strange  to  say,  and  it  is  something  for  us  all  to 
think  well  about,  he  declares  to  us  on  every  auto- 
biographic page  of  his,  that  all  the  time  he  sat  at 
Gamaliel's  feet,  and  for  many  disastrous  years  after 
that,  he  was  in  the  most  absolute  and  woe-working 
ignorance  of  the  law  of  God.  But  that  only 
increases  our  utter  amazement.  For,  was  it  not 
the  law  of  God  that  Gamaliel  had  opened  his 
school  to  teach  ?  What  in  the  world,  I  ask  again, 
can  Paul  mean  ?  Have  you  any  idea  what  the 
apostle  means  when  he  says,  with  such  life-long 
shame,  and   such  life-long  remorse,   that   all   his 

21 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

Jerusalem  and  Gamaliel  days  he  was  blind  and 
dead  in  his  ignorance  of  the  law  of  God  ?  It 
may,  perhaps,  help  us  to  an  understanding  of 
what  he  means,  if  we  try  to  mount  up  and  to 
stand  beside  him  on  the  far-shining  heights  of  his 
exalted  apostleship,  and  then  look  back  from 
thence  on  his  student  and  Pharisee  days  in 
Jerusalem.  For  it  was  just  in  the  law  of  God 
that  Paul  afterwards  became  such  a  master.  It 
was  just  the  complete  abolition  of  his  ignorance 
of  the  law  of  God  that  set  him  so  high  above 
even  the  pillar-apostles  in  their  remaining  ignor- 
ance of  it.  It  was  just  the  law  of  God  that  he 
so  reasoned  out,  and  debated  with  them,  as  well 
as  taught  and  preached  it  with  such  matchless 
success  in  every  synagogue  from  Damascus  to 
Rome.  It  was  his  incomparable  handling  of  the 
law  of  God  that  first  discovered  to  himself,  and  to 
the  enraptured  Church  of  Christ,  the  apostle's 
unique  theological  and  philosophical  genius,  and 
the  whole  originality,  and  depth,  and  sweep,  and 
grasp,  of  his  matchless  mind.  An  absolutely  new 
world  of  things  was  opened  up  to  the  Apostolic 
Church  when  Paul  came  back  from  Arabia  with 
the  full  revelation  of  the  law  and  the  gospel  in 
his  mind,  and  in  his  heart,  and  in  his  imagination. 
It  was  of  Paul,  and  of  the  law  of  God  in  Paul's 
preaching,  that  our  Lord  spake  when  He  said,  '  I 
have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  ye 
cannot  bear  them  now.  Howbeit  when  He,  the 
Spirit  of  truth,  is  come.  He  will  guide  you  into 
all  truth,' — which  He  did  when  He  led  Paul  into 

22 


AS  A  STUDENT 

Arabia.  And  then,  after  those  three  reading, 
meditating,  praying,  law-discovering,  self-discover- 
ing, Christ-discovering,  years,  Paul  came  back  to 
Damascus,  carrying  in  his  mind  and  in  his  heart 
the  copestone  of  New  Testament  doctrine,  with 
shoutings  of  grace  !  grace  !  unto  it.  It  was  PauFs 
imperial  mind,  winged  as  it  was  with  his  wonder- 
ful imagination,  that  first  swept,  full  of  eyes,  over 
the  whole  Old  Testament  history,  and  saw,  down 
to  the  bottom  and  up  to  the  top,  the  whole  hidden 
mystery  of  the  Old  Testament  economies,  from  the 
creation  of  the  first  Adam  on  to  the  sitting  down 
of  the  second  Adam  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 
From  the  creation  of  Adam  to  the  call  of  Abraham ; 
and  from  the  call  of  Abraham  to  the  giving  of  the 
law  four  hundred  and  thirty  years  after  ;  and  from 
the  giving  of  the  law  till  the  law  was  magnified 
in  the  life  and  death  of  Paul's  Master.  *  I  first 
of  all  mortal  men  have  thought  the  Creator's 
thoughts  after  Him,'  exclaimed  the  great  astro- 
nomical discoverer  as  he  fell  on  his  knees  in  his 
observatory.  And  the  great  discoverer  of  the 
whole  mystery  of  God,  in  the  law  and  in  the 
gospel,  must  often  have  fallen  down  and  uttered 
the  very  same  exclamation.  And  his  great 
revelations,  and  discoveries,  and  attainments,  and 
experiences,  are  preserved  to  us  in  such  profound, 
axiomatic,  and  far-enlightening  New  Testament 
propositions  and  illustrations  and  autobiographic 
ejaculations  as  these, — '  The  law  entered  that  the 
offence  might  abound.  By  the  law  is  the  know- 
ledge of  sin.      The  law  worketh  wrath.      Without 

23 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

the  law  sin  was  dead.  I  was  alive  without  the 
law  once.  I  am  sold  under  sin.  The  law  is  our 
schoolmaster  to  lead  us  to  Christ.  By  the  works 
of  the  law  shall  no  flesh  be  justified.  But  now 
we  are  no  more  under  the  law,  but  under  grace. 
I  am  dead  to  the  law,  that  being  dead  wherein  I 
was  held,' — and  so  on,  through  the  whole  of  the 
Galatians  and  the  Romans,  and  indeed  throughout 
every  Epistle  of  his.  Yes,  gentlemen,  you  may 
to-night  be  in  as  absolute  ignorance  of  all  that  as 
the  apostle  once  was  ;  but,  I  tell  you,  there  still 
lies  scope  and  opportunity  in  all  that  for  your 
most  scholarly,  most  logical,  and  most  philo- 
sophical minds,  and  for  your  most  eloquent, 
impressive,  and  prevailing  preaching.  Till  you 
ascend  for  yourselves,  and  then  lead  your  people 
up  to  this  golden  climax  of  the  apostle  concerning 
the  law,  and  concerning  Christ,  and  concerning 
himself  in  Christ — this  golden  climax — *  For  I 
through  the  law  am  dead  to  the  law,  that  I  might 
live  unto  God.  I  am  crucified  with  Christ :  never- 
theless I  live ;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me  : 
and  the  life  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  by  the 
faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me,  and  gave 
Himself  for  me.' 


24 


II 

PAUL  AS  APPREHENDED  OF  CHRIST  JESUS 

THE  first  time  we  see  Scaul  of  Tarsus  he  is 
silently  consenting  to  Stephen's  death. 
Why  the  fierce  young  Pharisee  did  not  take  a  far 
more  active  part  in  the  martyrdom  of  Stephen  we 
do  not  know ;  we  can  only  guess.  That  a  young 
zealot  of  SauFs  temperament  should  be  content  to 
sit  still  that  day,  and  merely  keep  the  clothes  of 
the  witnesses  who  stoned  Stephen,  makes  us 
wonder  what  it  meant.  But,  beginning  with  his 
silent  consent  to  the  death  of  Stephen,  Saul  soon 
went  on  to  plan  and  to  perpetrate  the  most 
dreadful  deeds  on  his  own  account.  '  As  for  Saul, 
he  made  havoc  of  the  Church,  entering  into  every 
house,  and  haling  men  and  women,  committed 
them  to  prison.  Which  thing  I  also  did  in 
Jerusalem  ;  and  many  of  the  saints  did  I  shut  up 
in  prison,  and  punished  them  oft  in  every  syna- 
gogue, and  compelled  them  to  blaspheme.  Beyond 
measure  I  persecuted  the  Church  of  God,  and 
wasted  it ;  I  was  a  blasphemer,  and  a  persecutor, 
and  injurious.'  And  thus  it  was  that  Saul  actually 
went  to  the  high  priest  in  Jerusalem,  and  desired 
of  him  letters   to  Damascus,  to  the  synagogues, 

25 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

that  if  he  found  any  of  this  way,  whether  they 
were  men  or  women,  he  might  bring  them  bound 
to  Jerusalem.  And,  accordingly,  on  that  errand, 
out  at  the  Damascus-gate  of  Jerusalem  he  rode 
with  his  band  of  temple  police  behind  him :  out 
past  Gethsemane :  out  past  Calvary,  where  he 
shook  his  spear  in  the  face  of  the  Crucified,  and 
cried.  Aha,  aha  !  Thou  deceiver !  and  posted  on 
breathing  out  threatenings  and  slaughter  against 
the  disciples  of  the  Lord. 

Gird  Thy  sword  upon  Thy  thigh,  O  Most  Mighty, 
with  Thy  glory  and  Thy  majesty  !  Thine  arrows 
are  sharp  in  the  hearts  of  the  King''s  enemies, 
whereby  the  people  fall  under  Thee  ! 

And  thus  it  was  that,  as  Saul  journeyed,  and  came 
near  Damascus,  suddenly  there  shone  down  upon 
him  a  great  light  from  heaven.  And  he  fell  to  the 
earth,  and  heard  a  voice  saying  to  him,  Saul,  Saul, 
why  persecutest  thou  Me?  His  eyes  were  as  a 
flame  of  fire,  and  His  voice  as  the  sound  of  many 
waters.  And  out  of  His  mouth  went  a  sharp 
two-edged  sword,  and  His  countenance  was  as  the 
sun  shineth  in  his  strength.  Arise,  go  into  the 
city,  and  it  shall  be  told  thee  what  thou  shalt  do. 
And  Saul  arose  from  the  earth,  and  they  led  him 
by  the  hand,  and  brought  him  into  Damascus. 
And  he  was  three  days  without  sight,  and  did 
neither  eat  nor  drink.  And  Ananias  entered  the 
house  where  Saul  lay,  and  putting  his  hands  on 
him,  he  said,  Brother  Saul,  the  Lord,  even  Jesus, 
that  appeared  unto  thee  on  the  way  as  thou 
camest,  hath  sent  me,  that  thou  mightest  receive 
26 


AS  APPREHENDED  OF  CHRIST 

thy  sight,  and  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost. 
And  immediately  there  fell  from  his  eyes,  as  if  it 
had  been  scales,  and  he  received  sight  forthwith, 
and  arose,  and  was  baptized.  Saul  of  Tarsus, 
I  baptize  thee  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of 
the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  there  was 
great  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels  of  God 
over  the  conversion  and  the  baptism  of  Saul  of 
Tarsus. 

Now,  the  suddenness  of  Saul's  conversion  is 
the  first  thing  arresting  about  it  to  us.  It  was 
literally,  and  in  his  own  words,  an  'apprehension.' 
'  Suddenly,'  is  his  own  word  about  it,  as  often  as 
he  tells  us  again  and  again  the  ever-fresh  story  of 
his  conversion.  The  whole  subject  of  conversion 
is  a  great  study  to  those  who  are  personally 
interested  in  the  supremest  of  all  human  experi- 
ences. There  is  such  a  Divine  Hand  in  every 
conversion ;  there  is  such  a  Sovereignty  in  it ; 
taking  place  within  a  man,  there  is  at  the  same 
time  such  a  mysteriousness  about  it ;  and,  withal, 
such  a  transcendent  importance,  that  there  is 
nothing  else  that  ever  takes  place  on  the  face 
of  the  earth  for  one  moment  to  be  compared 
with  a  conversion.  And,  then,  there  are  so  many 
kinds  of  conversion.  So  many  ways  of  it,  and 
such  different  occasions  and  circumstances  of  it. 
Some  conversions  are  as  sudden,  and  as  unexpected, 
and  as  complete,  as  SauPs  conversion  was  ;  and 
some  are  slowness  itself.  Some  are  such  that  the 
very  moment,  and  the  very  spot,  can  ever  after- 
wards be  pointed  out ;  while  some  other  men  are 

27 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

all  their  days  subject  to  doubt,  just  because  the 
change  came  so  easy  to  them  as  to  be  without 
observation.  They  were  born  of  the  Spirit  before 
they  could  distinguish  good  from  evil,  or  could 
discern  between  their  right  hand  and  their  left 
hand.  A  good  sermon  will  be  the  occasion  of 
one  conversion,  a  good  book  of  another,  and  a 
wise  word  spoken  in  due  season  of  another. 
Hearing  a  hymn  sung,  as  was  the  case  one 
Sabbath  evening  in  this  very  house ;  hearing  a 
verse  read,  as  was  the  case  with  St.  Augustine. 
Just  looking  for  a  little  at  a  dry  tree  will  do 
it  sometimes,  as  was  the  case  with  Brother 
Laurence.  Hopeful  saw  Faithful  burned  to  ashes ; 
Christiana  remembered  all  her  surly  carriages  to 
her  husband  ;  and  Mercy  came  just  in  time  to  see 
Christiana  packing  up.  Their  conversions  came 
to  Dr.  Donne  and  to  Dr.  Chalmers  long  after 
they  were  ministers ;  and,  after  their  almost  too 
late  conversion,  those  two  great  men  became  the 
greatest  preachers  of  their  day.  A  man  of 
business  will  be  on  his  way  to  his  office  on  a 
Monday  morning,  and  he  could  let  you  see  to 
this  day  the  very  shop  window,  passing  which,  in 
Princes  Street,  he  was  apprehended.  I  was  en- 
gaged to  be  married  and  she  died,  said  a  young 
communicant  to  me  on  one  occasion.  It  was  the 
unkindness  of  my  mistress,  said  a  servant-girl. 
Just  as  I  am  writing  these  lines  this  letter  reaches 
me :  '  When  the  Lord  opened  my  eyes  the  sight  I 
saw  broke  me  down  completely.  I  tried  to  work 
myself  right,  till  it  turned  out  to  be  the  hardest 
28 


AS  APPREHENDED  OF  CHRIST 

task  I  ever  tried.  But  I  would  not  give  in  till  He 
took  me  by  the  coat-neck  and  held  me  over  hell. 
Oh,  sir,  it  was  a  terrible  time !  My  sense  of 
sin  drove  me  half  mad.  But  I  kept  pouring  out 
my  heart  in  prayer  ! '  And  then  my  correspondent 
goes  on  to  tell  me  the  name  of  the  book  that  was 
made  such  a  blessing  to  him.  And  then  he  asks 
that  his  mistakes  in  spelling  be  pardoned,  and 
signs  himself  an  office-bearer  in  the  Church  of 
one  of  my  friends.  But  you  will  go  over  for 
yourselves  all  the  cases  of  conversion  you  have 
ever  heard  about,  or  read  about,  and  you  will 
see  for  yourselves  how  full  of  all  kinds  of  indi- 
viduality, and  variety,  and  intensity  of  interest, 
the  work  of  conversion  is,  till  like  Mercy  in 
Tlie  Pilgriiii's  Progress,  you  will  fall  in  love  with 
your  own. 

Some  men  put  oiF  their  conversion  because 
they  have  no  sense  of  sin.  But  look  at  Saul. 
What  sense  of  sin  had  he  ?  Not  one  atom.  He 
was  an  old  and  a  heaven -ripe  apostle  before  his 
full  sense  of  sin  came  home  to  him.  He  was  not 
groaning  out  the  seventh  of  the  Romans  when  he 
was  galloping  at  the  top  of  his  speed  on  his  way 
to  Damascus.  A  sensibility  to  sin  so  exquisite 
and  so  spiritual  as  that  of  the  apostle  never  yet 
came  to  any  man  but  after  long  long  years  of  the 
holiest  of  lives.  To  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred, 
even  of  truly  converted  men,  it  never  comes  at 
all.  How  could  it  ?  At  the  same  time,  who 
knows  ?  your  conversion,  both  in  its  present  in- 
sensibility, and  in  its  subsequent  spirituality,  may 

29 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

be  to  be  of  the  same  kind  as  PauPs  was,  if  you 
will  only  on  the  spot  submit  to  it.  Accept  your 
offered  conversion,  and  go  home  and  act  at  once 
and  ever  after  upon  it,  and  trust  the  Holy  Ghost 
for  your  sense  of  sin.  And  if  you  belong  to  the 
same  mental  and  moral  and  spiritual  seed  of 
Israel  as  Paul,  your  sense  of  sin  will  yet  come  to 
you  with  a  vengeance.  And,  once  it  begins  to 
come,  it  will  never  cease  coming  more  and  more, 
till  you  will  almost  be  driven  beside  yourself  with 
it.  On  the  other  hand,  your  conversion  may  not 
be  to  be  of  the  heart-breaking  kind.  You  may 
not  be  to  be  held  over  open  hell  by  the  coat- 
neck  like  my  ill-spelling  friend ;  your  experience 
may  be  to  be  like  that  of  Lydia.  Like  hers, 
your  conversion  may  be  to  steal  in  upon  your 
heart  some  night  at  a  prayer- meeting, — be  it 
of  whatever  kind  it  is  to  be,  take  it  when  and 
where  it  is  offered  to  you.  And  if  your  con- 
version is  of  the  right  kind  at  all,  and  holds, 
you  will  in  due  time  and  in  your  due  order, 
get  your  fit  and  proper  share  of  that  saving 
grace,  of  which  you  say  you  are  so  utterly  empty 
to-night. 

But  not  only  had  Saul  no  sense  of  sin  to  pre- 
pare him  for  his  conversion  :  he  had  no  prepara- 
tion and  no  fitness  for  his  conversion,  of  any  kind 
whatsoever.  He  brought  nothing  in  his  hands. 
He  came  just  as  he  was.  He  was  without  one 
plea.  Poor,  wretched,  blind ;  sight,  riches,  heal- 
ing of  the  mind.  Read  his  thrice-told  story,  and 
see  if  there  is  any  lesson  plainer,  or  more  pointed 
30 


AS  APPREHENDED  OF  CHRIST 

to  you  in  it  all,  than  just  the  unexpectedness,  the 
unpreparedness,  and  the  completeness  on  the  spot, 
of  SauPs  conversion.  With,  on  the  other  hand, 
his  instantaneous  and  full  faith,  his  childlike  trust, 
his  full  assurance,  and  his  prompt  and  unquestion- 
ing obedience.  Yes,  it  is  just  the  absolute 
sovereignty,  startling  suddenness,  total  unpre- 
paredness, entire  undeservingness,  and  glorious 
completeness,  of  SauPs  conversion  that,  all  taken 
together,  make  it  such  a  study,  and,  in  some 
respects,  such  a  model  conversion,  to  you  and 
to  me. 

There  is  another  lesson  told  us  three  times, 
as  if  to  make  sure  that  we  shall  not  miss  it  nor 
mistake  it.  Saul  got  his  conversion  out  of  that 
overthrow  on  the  way  to  Damascus,  while  all  his 
companions  only  got  some  bodily  bruises  from  their 
fall,  and  the  complete  upsetting  of  their  errand, 
out  of  it.  The  temple  officers  had  each  his  own 
story  to  tell  when  they  returned  without  any 
prisoners  to  Jerusalem  :  only,  none  of  them  needed 
to  be  led  by  the  hand  into  Damascus,  and  none 
of  them  were  baptized  by  Ananias,  but  Saul  only. 
All  of  which  is  written  for  our  learning.  For 
the  very  same  thing  will  take  place  here  to-night. 
One  will  be  Saul  over  again,  and  those  who  are 
sitting  beside  him  will  be  Saul's  companions  over 
again.  One  will  go  straight  home  after  this 
service,  and  will  never  all  his  days  have  Saul's 
sudden  and  unexpected  conversion  out  of  his  mind, 
such  a  divine  pattern  is  it  to  be  to  him  of  his  own 
conversion.     While  his  companions  will  be  able  to 

31 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

tell  when  they  go  home  who  preached,  and  on 
what,  the  fulness  of  the  Church,  the  excellence 
of  the  music,  and  the  state  of  the  weather  on 
the  way  home — and  that  will  be  all.  '  And 
they  that  were  with  me  saw  indeed  the  light, 
and  were  afraid ;  but  they  heard  not  the  voice  of 
Him  that  spake  with  me.  And  I  said,  What 
shall  I  do,  Lord  ?  And  He  said  to  me.  Arise, 
and  go  into  the  city,  and  there  it  shall  be  told 
thee  of  all  things  which  are  appointed  for  thee 
to  do.' 

'It  is  a  trap  set  for  us,"*  said  Ananias. 
'  Lord,'  he  said,  '  I  have  heard  by  many  of  this 
man,  how  much  evil  he  hath  done  to  Thy  saints  in 
Jerusalem.  And  how  he  has  come  here  with 
authority  to  bind  all  that  call  upon  Thy  name. 
It  is  a  trap  set  for  our  destruction,"  said  Ananias. 
'  Go  to  the  street  called  Straight,"*  said  the  Lord, 
'  and  if  thou  dost  not  find  him  in  prayer,  then 
it  is  a  trap  as  thou  fearest  it  is."  The  mark 
of  SauFs  conversion  that  silenced  Ananias  was 
this,  that  Saul  had  been  three  days  and  three 
nights  in  fasting  and  in  prayer  without  ceasing. 
Behold  he  prayeth,  said  Christ,  proud  of  the 
completeness  and  the  success  of  His  conversion  of 
Saul.  Has  Jesus  Christ,  with  His  eyes  like  a  flame 
of  fire,  set  that  secret  mark  on  your  conversion 
and  on  mine  ?  Does  he  point  you  out  to  His 
ministering  angels  and  sympathising  saints  in 
heaven  to-night,  as  He  pointed  out  Saul  to 
Ananias?  How  does  your  conversion  stand  the 
test  of  secret  prayer  ?  Behold,  he  prayeth  !  said 
32 


AS  APPREHENDED  OF  CHRIST 

Christ.  And  unceasing  prayer,  both  for  himself 
and  for  all  his  converts,  remained  to  be  PauPs 
mark,  and  token,  and  seal,  down  to  the  end  of  his 
days. 

The  best  expositor  by  far  that  ever  took  Paul's 
epistles  up  into  a  pulpit,  has  said  that  the 
apostle  never  fell  into  a  single  inconsistency  after 
his  conversion.  Now,  with  all  submission,  I  cannot 
receive  that  even  about  Paul,  any  more  than  I  can 
receive  it  about  any  other  man  that  ever  was  con- 
verted on  the  face  of  this  earth.  That  He  never 
fell  into  a  single  inconsistency  could  only  be  said 
about  One  Man  ;  and  we  never  speak  about  His 
conversion.  But  the  very  fact  that  the  profoundest 
preacher  that  I  possess  on  Paul,  and  the  pro- 
foundest preacher  of  conversion-consistency,  has 
said  such  a  thing  as  that,  shows  us  what  a  splendid, 
what  a  complete,  and  what  a  consistent,  conversion 
Paul's  conversion  must  have  been.  How  thorough- 
going it  must  have  been  at  the  time ;  and  how 
holy  in  all  manner  of  walk  and  conversation  must 
Paul  have  lived  ever  after.  Speaking  here  for 
myself,  and  not  venturing  to  speak  for  any  of  you, 
when  I  read  a  thing  like  that,  and  a  thing  said  by 
such  a  master  in  Israel  as  he  was  who  said  that, 
and  then  look  at  my  own  life  in  the  searching  light 
of  that,  I  feel  as  if  I  can  never  up  till  now  have 
been  converted  myself  at  all.  Unless  this  also  is 
a  sure  mark  of  a  true  conversion,  which  I  have 
seen  set  down  with  incomparable  power  by  this  very 
same  master  in  Israel,  this, — that  it  is  a  sure  and 
certain  mark  of  a  true  conversion  that  no  man  ever 

C  33 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

understands  what  inconsistency  really  is  till  he 
is  truly  converted.  To  be  all  but  entirely  void  of 
offence,  as  Paul  said  of  himself;  to  be  all  but 
completely  consistent  in  everything,  was  one  of  the 
sure  and  certain  marks  of  PauPs  conversion.  But, 
then,  to  feel  myself  to  be  full  to  the  lips  of  offence  : 
to  see  and  to  feel  myself  to  be  the  most  incon- 
sistent man  in  all  the  world,  is,  by  this  same  high 
authority,  offered  to  me  as  a  mark  of  my  conver- 
sion, as  good  to  me  as  PauPs  magnificent  marks 
were  to  him.  '  The  disproportion  of  man '  is  one 
of  Pascal's  most  prostrating  passages ;  and  the 
offensiveness,  the  inconsistency,  and  the  dispropor- 
tion, of  my  heart  and  my  life,  are  the  most 
prostrating  of  all  my  experiences.  Indeed,  nothing 
ever  prostrates  me,  to  be  called  prostration,  but 
these  experiences.  At  the  same  time,  the  whole 
and  entire  truth  at  its  deepest  bottom  is  this. 
That  both  things  are  true  of  Paul  and  of  his  con- 
version. Paul  was  at  one  and  the  same  moment, 
and  in  one  and  the  same  matter,  both  the  most 
consistent,  and  the  most  inconsistent,  of  all  Christ's 
converts.  He  was  both  the  most  blameless,  and 
the  most  blameable  ;  the  best  proportioned,  and  the 
most  disproportioned,  of  all  Christian  men,  such 
was  the  holiness  of  his  life,  and  such  was  the 
spirituality  of  his  mind  and  heart.  And  both 
experiences,  taken  together,  combine  to  constitute 
the  most  complete  and  all-round  mark  of  a  perfect 
conversion.  Now,  all  that,  and  far  more  than  all 
that,  combine  to  make  Paul's  conversion  the  most 
momentous,  and  the  most  wonderful,  conversion  in 

34 


AS  APPREHENDED  OF  CHRIST 

all  the  world.  And  yet,  no.  There  is  one  other 
conversion  long  since  PauPs,  that  will,  to  you  and 
to  me  to  all  eternity,  quite  eclipse  PauPs  conver- 
sion, and  will  for  ever  completely  cast,  even  it, 
quite  into  the  shade. 


35 


Ill 

PAUL  IN  ARABIA 

NO  sooner  was  Paul  baptized  by  Ananias, 
than,  instead  of  returning  home  to 
Jerusalem,  he  immediately  set  out  for  Arabia. 
He  had  come  down  to  Damascus  with  horses  and 
servants  like  a  prince,  but  he  set  out  alone  for 
Arabia  like  Jacob  with  his  staff.  For,  all  that  he 
took  with  him  was  his  parchments,  and  some 
purchases  he  had  made  in  the  street  called  Straight. 
A  few  of  those  simple  instruments  that  tentmakers 
use  when  they  have  to  minister  to  their  own  neces- 
sities, was  all  that  Paul  encumbered  himself  with 
as  he  started  from  Ananias's  door  on  his  long  and 
solitary  journey  to  Arabia. 

What  it  was  that  took  Paul  so  immediately  and 
so  far  away  as  Arabia,  we  can  only  guess.  If  it 
was  simply  a  complete  seclusion  that  he  was  in 
search  of,  he  might  surely  have  secured  that 
seclusion  much  nearer  home.  But,  somehow,  Sinai 
seems  to  have  drawn  Paul  to  her  awful  solitudes 
with  an  irresistible  attraction  and  strength.  It 
may  have  been  an  old  desire  of  his  formed  at 
Gamaliel's  feet,  some  day  to  see  the  Mount  of  God 
with  his  own  eyes.     He  may  have  said  to  himself 

37 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

that  he  must  hide  himself  for  once  in  that  cleft- 
rock  before  he  sat  down  to  his  life-work  in  Moses' 
seat.  I  must  see  Rome,  he  said  towards  the  end 
of  his  life.  I  must  see  Sinai,  he  also  said  at  the 
beginning  of  his  life.  And  thus  it  was  that  as 
soon  as  he  was  baptized  in  Ananias's  house  in 
Damascus,  Paul  immediately  set  out  for  Arabia. 

Look  at  that  weak  bodily  presence.  But,  at 
the  same  time,  judge  him  not  by  his  outward 
appearance.  For  he  carries  Augustine,  and  Luther, 
and  Calvin,  and  Knox,  and  Edwards,  and  Chalmers, 
in  his  fruitful  loins.  In  that  lonely  stranger  you 
are  now  looking  at,  and  in  his  seed,  shall  all  the 
families  of  the  earth  be  blessed.  Look  at  the 
eyes  of  his  understanding  as  they  begin  to  be 
enlightened.  Look  at  him  with  his  heart  all  on 
fire.  Look  at  him  as  he  unrolls  his  parchments 
at  every  roadside  well,  and  drinks  of  the  brook 
by  the  way.  Thy  word  is  more  to  me  than  my 
necessary  food,  and  thy  love  is  better  than  wine  ! 

What  a  three  years  were  those  three  years  that 
Paul  spent  in  Arabia !  Never  did  any  other  lord 
receive  his  own  again  with  such  usury  as  when 
Paul  went  into  Arabia  with  Moses  and  the  Prophets 
and  the  Psalms  in  his  knapsack,  and  returned  to 
Damascus  with  the  Romans  and  the  Ephesians  and 
the  Colossians  in  his  mouth  and  in  his  heart. 
What  an  incomparable  book  waits  to  be  written 
about  those  three  immortal  years  in  Arabia  !  After 
those  thirty  preparation-years  at  Nazareth,  there  is 
no  other  opportunity  left  for  any  sanctified  pen, 
like  those  three  revelation -years  in  Arabia.      Only, 

38 


IN  ARABIA 

it  will  demand  all  that  is  within  the  most  Paul-like 
writer,  to  fit  him  out  for  his  splendid  enterprise. 
It  will  demand,  and  it  will  repay,  all  his  learning, 
and  all  his  intellect,  and  all  his  imagination,  and 
all  his  sinfulness,  and  all  his  salvation.  Just  to 
give  us  a  single  Sabbath  out  of  Paul's  hundred  and 
fifty  Sabbaths  at  Sinai — what  a  revelation  to  us  that 
would  be !  It  would  be  something  like  this,  only 
a  thousand  times  better.  When  first  you  fell  in 
love :  when  first  your  captivated  heart  made  you 
like  the  chariots  of  Ammi-nadib  ;  the  whole  world 
was  full  of  one  name  to  you.  There  was  no  other 
name  to  you  in  all  the  world.  Every  bird  sang 
that  name.  Every  rock  echoed  with  that  name. 
You  wrote  that  name  everywhere.  You  read  that 
name  everywhere.  You  loved  everybody  and  every- 
thing for  the  sake  of  that  name.  Now,  it  was 
something  like  that  between  Paul  and  Jesus  Christ. 
Only,  it  was  far  better  than  that  between  Paul 
and  Jesus  Christ  at  the  time,  and  it  was  far  more 
lasting  with  them  than  it  has  been  with  you. 
Luther,  who  was  almost  as  great  a  lover  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  Paul  was,  has  this  over  and  over  again 
about  Paul  and  Jesus  Christ.  *  Jesus  Christ  is  never 
out  of  PauPs  mouth.  Indeed,  there  is  nobody  and 
nothing  now  and  always  in  PauPs  mouth  but  Jesus 
Christ  and  His  Cross.'  Now  that  is  literally  true. 
For,  as  often  as  Paul  opens  his  Moses  in  Arabia,  and 
finds  the  place  he  is  seeking  for,  he  cannot  see  the 
place  when  he  has  found  it  for  Jesus  Christ. 
Jesus  Christ  comes  between  Paul  and  everything. 
To  Paul  to  read,  and  to  meditate,  and  to  pray,  is 

39 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

Jesus  Christ.  So  much  so,  that  as  soon  as  he 
finds  the  place  at  the  very  first  verse  of  Genesis,  he 
immediately  goes  off  at  the  word,  and  exclaims,  till 
the  Arabs  all  around  listen  to  his  rapture, — the 
mystery  !  he  exclaims,  which  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world  hath  been  hid  in  God,  who  created 
all  things  by  Jesus  Christ.  And  at  this, — Let 
there  be  light !  For  God,  he  exclaims  again,  who 
commanded  the  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness, 
hath  shined  in  our  hearts  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ.  And,  does  Adam  burst  out  into  his 
bridegroom  doxology, — This  is  now  bone  of  my 
bone,  and  flesh  of  my  flesh  ! — then  Paul  instantly 
adds.  Amen  !  But  I  speak  concerning  Christ  and 
His  Church.  And  before  he  leaves  the  first  Adam 
he  gets  such  a  revelation  of  the  second  Adam 
made  in  him  that  the  Corinthians  had  many  a 
glorious  Sabbath  morning  on  the  two  Adams,  all 
the  way  from  Arabia,  long  afterwards.  And,  again, 
no  sooner  does  God  speak  in  covenant  to  Abraham 
about  his  seed,  than  Paul  immediately  annotates 
that  He  saith  not  to  seeds  as  of  many,  but  as  of 
One,  which  is  Christ.  But,  on  all  that  Moses  ever 
wrote,  there  was  nothing  that  Paul  spent  so  much 
time  and  strength,  as  just  on  this  concerning  the 
father  of  the  faithful, — that  Abraham  believed  in 
God,  and  it  was  counted  to  him  for  righteousness. 
Now,  said  Paul,  reasoning  to  himself  over  that 
revelation,  and  then  reasoning  to  us, — Now  it  was 
not  written  for  Abraham's  sake  alone,  that  it  was 
imputed  to  him,  but  for  our  sakes  also,  to  whom  it 
shall  be  imputed,  if  we  believe  on  Him  who  raised 
40 


IN  ARABIA 

up  Jesus  our  Lord  from  the  dead ;  who  was  de- 
livered for  our  offences,  and  was  raised  again  for 
our  justification.  And  so  on,  till  to  have  spent  a 
single  Sabbath-day  with  Paul  at  Sinai  would  have 
been  almost  as  good  as  to  have  walked  that  evening 
hour  to  Emmaus.  So  did  Paul  discover  the  Son  of 
God  in  Arabia :  so  did  Paul  have  the  Son  of  God 
revealed  to  him  in  Adam,  and  in  Abraham,  and  in 
Moses,  and  in  David,  and  in  Isaiah,  but,  best  of  all, 
in  Paul  himself. 

And,  then,  Paul's  first  fast-day  in  Arabia.  Paul 
was  never  out  of  the  Psalms  on  those  days  that  he 
observed  so  solemnly  at  Sinai.  Till  his  David  was 
like  John  Bunyan's  Luther,  so  old  that  it  was 
ready  to  fall  piece  from  piece  if  he  did  but  turn 
it  over.  But  he  always  turned  it  over  at  such 
sacramental  seasons  till  he  came  again  to  that 
great  self-examination  Psalm,  where  he  found  it 
written  concerning  himself :  These  things  hast  thou 
done,  and  I  kept  silence.  Thou  thoughtest  that  I 
was  altogether  such  an  one  as  thyself.  But  I  will 
reprove  thee,  and  set  them  in  order  before  thee. 
And  it  was  so.  For,  there  they  stood,  set  in  order 
before  him,  and  passed  in  order  before  him  and 
before  God.  The  souls  of  all  the  men  and  women 
and  children  he  had  haled  to  prison,  and  had  com- 
pelled to  blaspheme,  and  had  slain  with  the  sword. 
And,  then,  as  he  hid  himself  in  the  cleft  rock — how 
the  Name  of  the  Lord  would  come  up  into  his  mind  . 
and  how,  like  Moses  also,  he  would  make  haste  and 
bow  his  head  to  the  earth  and  say  :  Take  me  for 
one  of  Thy  people.      And,  till  God  would  again 

41 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

reveal  His  Son  in  Paul  in  a  way,  and  to  a  degree, 
that  it  is  not  possible  for  Paul  to  tell  to  such  impeni- 
tent and  unprostrated  readers  of  his  as  we  are.  And, 
then,  far  over  and  above  those  terrible  sins  of  his 
youth,  there  was  the  absolutely  unparalleled  and 
absolutely  indescribable  agony  that  came  upon 
Paul  out  of  the  remaining  covetousness  and  conse- 
quent malice  of  his  heart,  and  more  and  more  so 
as  his  heart  was  more  and  more  brought  down 
under  the  ever- increasing  and  all-piercing  spiritu- 
ality of  God's  holy  law.  An  agony  that  sometimes 
threatened  to  drive  Paul  beside  himself  altogether. 
And  till,  on  the  rocks  of  Sinai  the  shepherds 
would  sometimes  come  on  somewhat  the  same 
sweat  of  blood  that  the  gardeners  came  on  in  the 
Garden  of  Gethsemane.  For  it  was  in  Arabia, 
and  it  was  under  the  Mount  of  God,  that  PauPs 
apostolic  ink-horn  was  first  filled  with  that  ink  of 
God  with  which  he  long  afterwards  wrote  that 
so  little  understood  writing  of  his,  which  we  call 
the  Seventh  of  the  Romans.  A  little  understood 
writing ;  and  no  wonder  ! 

The  Apostle  came  back  from  Arabia  to 
Damascus,  after  three  years'  absence,  absolutely 
ladened  down  with  all  manner  of  doctrines,  and 
directions,  and  examples,  for  us  and  for  our  sal- 
vation, if  we  would  only  attend  to  them  and 
receive  them.  Directions  and  examples  of  which 
this  is  one  of  the  first.  That  solitude,  the  most 
complete  and  not  short  solitude,  was  the  one 
thing  that  Paul  determined  to  secure  for  himself 
immediately  after  his  conversion  and  his  baptism. 
42 


IN  ARABIA 

And  we  have  a  still  better  Example  of  all  that 
than  even  Paul.  For,  over  and  above  His  thirty 
uninvaded  years,  no  sooner  was  that  '  Glorious 
Eremite  '  baptized,  than  he  went  away  and  took 
forty  days  to  Himself  before  He  began  His  public 
life.  '  One  day ' — sings  concerning  Him  one  of 
His  servants  who  loved  seclusion  also,  and  put 
it  to  some  purpose — 

'  One  day  forth  walked  alone^  the  Spirit  leading. 
And  His  deep  thoughts,  the  better  to  converse 
With  solitude  ;  till  far  from  track  of  man, 
Thought  following  thought,  and  step  on  step  led  on. 
He  entered  now  the  bordering  desert-wild. 
And,  with  dark  shades  and  rocks  environ'd  round. 
His  holy  meditations  thus  pursued.' 

And  thus  it  is  that  Holy  Scripture  is  every- 
where so  full  of  apartness  and  aloneness  and 
solitude :  of  lodges  in  the  wilderness,  and  of 
shut  doors  in  the  city:  of  early  mornings,  and 
late  nights,  and  lonely  night-watches  :  of  Sab- 
bath-days and  holidays,  and  all  such  asylums  of 
spiritual  retreat. 

Down  to  Gehenna,  and  up  to  the  throne, 
He  travels  the  fastest  who  travels  alone. 

But  the  Apostle's  chief  reason  for  telling  us 
about  Arabia  at  all  is  this,  to  prove  to  us,  and  to 
impress  upon  us,  that  it  was  not  cities  and 
colleges  and  books  that  made  him  what  by  that 
time  he  was  made.  It  was  God  Himself  who 
made  Paul  the  Apostle  he  was  made.  I  con- 
ferred    not    with    flesh    and    blood,   he    protests. 

43 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

He  had  books,  indeed,  as  we  have  seen :  he  always 
had.  He  had  the  best  of  books  :  he  always  had. 
But  even  Moses  and  David  and  Isaiah  themselves 
are  but  flesh  and  blood  compared  with  God. 
Even  grace  itself  is  but  flesh  and  blood  compared 
with  Christ,  says  Thomas  Shepard.  And  Paul  is 
careful  and  exact,  above  everything,  to  make  it 
clear  to  us,  that  not  only  was  it  God  Himself 
who  immediately  and  conclusively  revealed  His 
Son  in  Paul ;  but,  also,  that  it  was  His  Son  that 
God  so  revealed.  It  was  not  Jesus  Christ,  so 
much,  distinguishes  Paul,  that  God  revealed  in 
him.  Jesus  Christ  had  revealed  Himself  to  Paul 
already  at  the  gate  of  Damascus,  but  God's 
revelation  of  His  Son  in  Arabia  was  a  revelation 
of  far  more  than  of  Jesus  Christ  whom  Paul  was 
persecuting.  For,  this  in  Arabia  is  God's 
Eternal  and  Co-Equal  Son.  And  that,  not 
merely  as  made  flesh,  and  made  sin  :  not  merely 
as  crucified,  and  risen,  and  exalted,  and  glorified ; 
but  as  He  had  been  before  all  that,  and  during 
all  that,  and  after  all  that.  It  was  God's  Essential 
and  Eternal  Son :  it  was  God's  very  deepest, 
completest,  and  most  crowning  revelation  possible 
of  His  only-begotten  Son,  that  God,  in  such 
grace  and  truth,  made  in  Paul  in  Arabia. 

In  me,  says  Paul.  In  my  deepest  mind  and 
in  my  deepest  heart :  in  my  very  innermost  soul 
and  strength.  And  thus  it  was  that  Paul  under- 
went two  grand  revelations,  over  and  above  a  multi- 
tude of  lesser  revelations  which  arose  out  of  those 
two  epoch-making  revelations,  and  which  both 
44 


IN  ARABIA 

perfected  and  applied  them.  The  one,  that  grand 
and  epoch-making  revelation  made  on  the  way  to 
Damascus,  and  made  immediately  by  Jesus  Christ, 
whom  Paul  was  at  that  moment  persecuting.  A 
revelation  divinely  suited  to  all  the  circumstances. 
A  revelation  outward,  arresting,  overpowering : 
taking  possession  of  ail  the  persecutor'*s  bodily 
senses,  and  thus  surrounding  and  seizing  all  the 
passes  into  his  soul.  The  other,  made  within  and 
upon  Paul's  pure  and  naked  soul,  and  apart  alto- 
gether from  the  employment  of  his  senses  upon 
his  soul.  A  revelation  impossible  adequately  to 
describe.  A  revelation  made  by  God  of  His  Son, 
most  inward,  most  profound,  most  penetrating, 
most  soul-possessing :  most-enlarging  to  the  soul, 
most  uplifting,  and  most  upholding :  most  assur- 
ing, most  satisfying,  most  sanctifying  :  intellectual, 
spiritual,  experimental,  evangelical  :  all-renewing 
and  all-transforming :  full  of  truth,  full  of  love, 
full  of  assurance,  full  of  holiness,  full  of  the  peace 
of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding.  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  appeared  to  Saul  the  persecutor,  as 
He  had  already  appeared  to  Mary  Magdalene,  and 
to  the  ten  disciples,  and  to  Thomas.  But  God 
the  Father  revealed  His  Son  in  Paul  the  Apostle, 
as  He  had  never  revealed  Him  before,  and  as  He 
has  never  revealed  Him  since  in  mortal  man. 
That  is  to  say,  with  a  fulness,  and  with  a  finalness, 
that  has  made  all  God"'s  subsequent  revelations  of 
His  Son,  at  their  best,  to  be  but  superficial  and 
partial,  occasional  and  intermittent.  Not  that  it 
need  be  so      Not  that  it  ought  to  be  so.     For 

45 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

if  we  but  gave  ourselves  up  to  God  and  to  His 
Son,  as  Paul  gave  himself  up,  we  also,  no  doubt, 
would  soon  reap  our  reward.  But,  as  it  is,  Paul's 
apprehension  of  God's  Son,  Paul's  comprehension 
of  God's  Son,  and  Paul's  service  of  God's  Son, 
have  remained  to  this  day,  by  far  the  first,  by  far 
the  best,  by  far  the  most  complete,  by  far  the 
most  final,  and  by  far  the  most  fruitful,  revelation 
of  His  Son,  that  Almighty  God  has  ever  made  in 
any  of  the  sons  of  men. 


46 


IV 

PAUL'S  VISIT  TO  JERUSALEM  TO  SEE  PETER 

PUT  yourself  back  into  Paul's  place.  Suppose 
yourself  born  in  Tarsus,  brought  up  at 
Gamaliers  feet  in  Jerusalem,  and  keeping  the 
clothes  of  Stephen's  executioners.  Think  of  your- 
self as  a  blasphemer,  and  a  persecutor,  and  injurious. 
And  then  imagine  yourself  apprehended  of  Christ 
Jesus,  driven  of  the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness  of 
Arabia,  and  coming  back  with  all  your  bones 
burning  within  you  to  preach  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified.  But,  all  the  time,  you  have  never 
once  seen  your  Master  in  the  flesh,  as  His  twelve 
disciples  had  seen  Him.  He  had  been  for  thirty 
years  with  His  mother  and  His  sisters  and  His 
brethren  in  Galilee.  And  then  He  had  been  for 
three  years  with  the  twelve  and  the  seventy.  But 
Paul  had  been  bom  out  of  due  time.  And  thus 
it  was  that  Paul  went  up  to  Jerusalem  to  see 
Peter  about  all  that.  Paul  had  a  great  desire  to 
see  Peter  about  all  that  before  he  began  his 
ministry.  And  you  would  have  had  that  same 
great  desire,  and  so  would  I. 

At  the  same  time,  even  with  the  prospect  of 
seeing  Peter,  it  must  have  taken  no  little  courage 

47 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

on  PauPs  part  to  face  Judea  and  Jerusalem  again. 
To  face  the  widows  and  the  orphans  of  the  men  he 
had  put  to  death  in  the  days  of  his  ignorance  and 
unbelief.  To  Paul  the  very  streets  of  Jerusalem 
were  still  wet  with  that  innocent  blood.  Led  in 
by  Peter,  Paul  sat  at  the  same  Lord's  table,  and 
ate  the  same  bread,  and  drank  the  same  wine,  with 
both  old  and  young  communicants,  who  had  not 
yet  put  off  their  garments  of  mourning  because  of 
Paul.  Deliver  me  from  blood-guiltiness,  O  God, 
Thou  God  of  my  salvation.  Then  will  I  teach 
transgressors  Thy  ways.  Do  good  in  Thy  good 
pleasure  unto  Zion ;  build  Thou  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem.  And  thus  it  was  that,  to  the  end  of 
his  days,  Paul  was  always  making  collections  for 
those  same  poor  saints  that  were  in  Jerusalem. 
Paul  would  have  pensioned  every  one  of  them  out 
of  his  own  pocket,  had  he  been  able.  But  how 
could  he  do  that  off  a  needle  and  a  pair  of  shears  ? 
And  thus  it  was  that  he  begged  so  incessantly  for 
the  fatherless  families  that  he  had  made  fatherless 
in  Judea  and  in  Jerusalem.  Now,  if  any  of  you 
have  ever  made  any  woman  a  widow,  or  any  child 
an  orphan,  or  done  anything  of  that  remorseful 
kind,  do  not  flee  the  country.  You  cannot  do  it, 
and  you  need  not  try.  Remain  where  you  are. 
Go  back  to  the  place.  Go  back  often  in  imagina- 
tion, if  not  in  your  bodily  presence.  Do  the  very 
utmost  that  in  you  lies,  to  repair  the  irreparable 
wrong  that  you  did  long  ago.  And,  when  you 
cannot  redeem  that  dreadful  damage,  commit  it  to 
Him  who  can  redeem  both  it  and  you.     And  say 

48 


VISITS  JERUSALEM  TO  SEE  PETER 

to  Him  continually  : — Count  me  a  partner  with 
Thee.      And  put  that  also  down  to  my  account. 

'  To  see  Peter,'  our  Authorised  Version  is  made 
to  say.  '  To  visit  Peter,'  the  Revised  Version  is 
made  to  say.  And,  still,  to  help  out  all  that 
acknowledged  lameness,  the  revised  margin  is  made 
to  say,  '  to  become  acquainted  with  Peter.'  But 
Paul  would  not  have  gone  so  far,  at  that  time  at 
any  rate,  to  see  Peter  or  any  one  else.  Any  one 
else,  but  Peter's  Master.  But  to  see  Him  even 
once,  as  He  was  in  the  flesh,  Paul  would  have  gone 
from  Damascus  to  Jerusalem  on  his  hands  and  his 
knees.  *  I  went  up  to  Jerusalem  to  history  Peter,' 
is  what  Paul  really  says.  Only,  that  is  not  good 
English.  But  far  better  bad  English,  than  an 
utterly  meaningless  translation  of  such  a  text. 
*  To  interview  Peter,'  is  not  good  English  either, 
but  it  conveys  Paul's  meaning  exactly.  The  great 
Greek  historians  employ  Paul's  very  identical  word 
when  they  tell  their  readers  the  pains  they  took 
to  get  first-hand  information  before  they  began  to 
write  their  books.  '  I  went  up  to  interrogate  and 
to  cross-question  Peter  all  about  our  Lord,'  that 
would  be  rough  English  indeed,  but  it  would  be 
far  better  than  so  feebly  to  say,  'to  see  Peter,' 
which  positively  hides  from  his  readers  what  was 
Paul's  real  errand  to  Jerusalem,  and  to  Peter. 

Had  Landor  been  led  to  turn  his  fine  dramatic 
genius  and  his  ripe  scholarship  to  Scriptural 
subjects,  he  would,  to  a  certainty,  have  given  us 
the  conversations  that  took  place  for  fifteen  days 
between  Paul  and  Peter.      Landor 's  Epictetus  and 

D  49 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

Seneca,  his  Diogenes  and  Plato,  his  Melanchthon 
and  Calvin,  his  Galileo  and  Milton  and  a  Domini- 
can, and  his  Dante  and  Beatrice,  are  all  among  his 
masterpieces.  But  his  Paul  and  Peter,  and  his 
Paul  and  James  the  brother  of  our  Lord,  and 
especially  his  Paul  and  the  mother  of  our  Lord, 
would  have  eclipsed  clean  out  of  sight  his  most 
classical  compositions.  For,  on  no  possible  subject, 
was  Peter  so  ready  always  to  speak,  and  to  all 
comers,  as  just  about  his  Master.  And  never 
before  nor  since  had  Peter  such  a  hungry  hearer 
as  just  his  present  visitor  and  interrogator  from 
Arabia  and  Damascus.  Peter  began  by  telling 
Paul  all  about  that  day  when  his  brother  Andrew 
so  burst  in  upon  him  about  the  Messiah.  And 
then  that  day  only  second  to  it,  on  the  Lake  of 
Gennesaret.  And  then  Matthew  the  publican's 
feast,  and  so  on,  till  Peter  soon  saw  what  it  was 
that  Paul  had  come  so  far  to  hear.  And  then  he 
went  on  with  the  good  Samaritan,  and  the  lost 
piece  of  silver,  and  the  lost  sheep,  and  the  lost  son. 
For  fifteen  days  and  fifteen  nights  this  went  on 
till  the  two  prostrate  men  took  their  shoes  off 
their  feet  when  they  entered  the  Garden  of  Geth- 
semane.  And  both  at  the  cock-crowing,  and  at 
Calvary,  Peter  and  Paul  wept  so  sore  that  Mary 
herself,  and  Mary  Magdalene,  did  not  weep  like 
it.  Now,  just  trust  me  and  tell  me  what  you 
would  have  asked  at  Peter  about  his  Master. 
Would  you  have  asked  anything  ?  How  far  would 
you  go  to-night  to  have  an  interview  with  Peter  ? 
Honestly,  have  you  any  curiosity  at  all  about 
50 


VISITS  JERUSALEM  TO  SEE  PETER 

Jesus  Christ,  either  as  He  is  in  heaven  now,  or  as 
He  was  on  earth  then  ?  Really  and  truly,  do  you 
ever  think  about  Him,  and  imagine  Him,  and 
what  He  is  saying  and  doing  ?  Or  are  you  like 
John  Bunyan,  who  never  thought  whether  there 
was  a  Christ  or  no  ?  If  you  would  tell  me  two  or 
three  of  the  questions  you  would  have  put  to 
Peter,  I  would  tell  you  in  return  just  who  and 
what  you  are ;  just  how  you  stand  to-night  to 
Jesus  Christ,  and  how  He  stands  to  you :  and 
what  He  thinks  and  says  about  you,  and  intends 
toward  you. 

And  then  if  Mary,  the  mother  of  our  Lord, 
was  still  in  this  world,  it  is  certain  to  me  that 
Paul  both  saw  her  in  James's  house,  and  kissed  her 
hand,  and  called  her  Blessed.  You  may  depend 
upon  it  that  Mary  did  not  remain  very  long  away 
from  James's  house  after  his  conversion.  It  was 
all  very  good  to  have  a  lodging  with  the  disciple 
whom  Jesus  loved,  till  her  own  slow-hearted  son 
believed.  But  I  put  it  to  you  who  are  mothers 
in  Israel,  to  put  yourselves  in  Mary's  place  in 
those  days,  and  to  say  if  you  would  have  been  to 
be  found  anywhere,  by  that  time,  but  in  the 
house  of  your  own  believing  son.  And  what 
more  sure  and  certain  than  that  God,  here  again, 
revealed  His  Son  to  Paul  out  of  Mary's  long 
hidden  heart.  '  I  have  the  most  perfect,  and  at 
first-hand,  assurance  of  all  these  things  from  them 
that  were  eye-witnesses  and  ministers  of  the  Word,' 
says  Paul's  physician  and  private  secretary.  No- 
where, at  any  rate,  in  the  whole  world,  could  that 

51 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

miraculous  and  mystery-laden  woman  have  found 
such  another  heart  as  Paul's  into  which  to  pour 
out  all  that  had  been  for  so  long  sealed  up  in  her 
hidden  heart.  '  Whether  we  were  in  the  body, 
or  out  of  the  body,  as  she  told  me  all  about 
Nazareth,  and  as  I  told  her  all  about  Damascus 
and  Arabia,  I  cannot  tell :  God  knoweth.' 

'  From  the  Old  Testament  point  of  view,'  says 
Bengel  in  his  own  striking  and  suggestive  way, 
'the  progress  is  made  from  the  knowledge  of 
Christ  to  the  knowledge  of  Jesus.  From  the  New 
Testament  point  of  view,  the  progress  is  made 
from  the  knowledge  of  Jesus  to  the  knowledge 
of  Christ.'  And  have  we  not  ourselves  already 
seen  how  Paul's  progress  was  made  ?  Paul's  pro- 
gress was  made  from  the  knowledge  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  risen  from  the  dead,  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  Son  of  God  ;  and  then  from  the  know- 
ledge of  both  back  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Holy 
Child  Jesus,  and  the  Holy  Man  Jesus,  as  He  was 
known  to  His  mother,  to  James  His  brother,  and 
to  Peter  His  so  intimate  disciple.  Paul  went 
'  back  to  Jesus,'  as  the  saying  sometimes  is ;  but 
when  he  went  back  he  took  back  with  him  all  the 
knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God  that  he  has  put 
into  his  Epistles,  ay,  and  much  more  than  the 
readers  of  his  Epistles  were  able  to  receive.  And 
God's  way  with  Paul  is  His  best  way  with  us  also. 
You  will  never  read  the  four  Gospels  with  true 
intellectual  understanding,  and  with  true  spiritual 
appreciation,  till  you  have  first  read  and  under- 
stood and  appreciated  Paul's  Epistles.  But  after 
52 


VISITS  JERUSALEM  TO  SEE  PETER 

you  have  had  God's  Son  revealed  in  you  by  means 
of  PauFs  Epistles,  you  will  then  be  prepared  for 
all  that  Matthew  and  Mark  and  Luke  and  John 
have  to  tell  you  about  the  Word  made  flesh  in 
their  day.  PauPs  hand  holds  the  true  key  to  all 
the  mysteries  that  are  hid  in  the  Prophets  and  in 
the  Psalms  and  in  the  Gospels.  Take  back  Paul 
with  you,  and  all  the  prophecies  and  all  the  types 
of  the  Old  Testament,  and  all  the  wonderful  works 
of  God  in  the  New  Testament, — His  Son's  sinless 
conception,  His  miracles,  His  teaching  and  preach- 
ing. His  agony  in  the  garden.  His  death  on  the 
Cross,  and  His  resurrection  and  ascension, — will 
all  fall  into  their  natural  and  necessary  places. 
It  is  in  the  very  same  order  in  which  the  great 
things  of  God  were  revealed  to  Paul,  and  appre- 
hended by  Paul,  that  they  will  best  be  revealed  to 
us,  and  best  apprehended  by  us.  First  our  con- 
version ;  and  then  the  Pauline,  Patristic,  and 
Puritan  doctrine  of  the  Son  of  God ;  and  then  all 
that  taken  back  by  us  to  the  earthly  life  of  our 
Blessed  Lord  as  it  is  told  to  us  by  the  four 
Evangelists.  Damascus,  Arabia,  Nazareth,  Jeru- 
salem,— this,  in  our  day  also,  is  the  God-guided 
progress,  in  which  the  true  successors  of  the 
Apostle  Paul  are  still  travelling,  in  their  spiritual 
experience,  and  in  their  evangelical  scholarship. 


53 


PAUL  AS  A  PREACHER 

WHEN  it  pleased  God  to  reveal  the  cross  of 
Christ  in  Paul,  from  that  day  the  cross 
of  Christ  was  Paul's  special,  peculiar,  and  exclusive, 
Gospel.  The  cross  of  Christ  is  '  my  gospel,"  Paul 
proudly  and  constantly  claims,  in  the  face  of  all 
comers.  The  cross  of  Christ,  he  declares,  is  the 
one  and  the  only  Gospel  that  he  preaches,  that  he 
always  preaches,  and  that  he  alone  preaches.  The 
cross  of  Christ  was  profitable  to  Paul  for  doctrine, 
for  reproof,  for  correction,  and  for  instruction  in 
righteousness  :  and  nothing  else  was  of  any  real 
interest  or  any  real  profit  to  Paul.  The  cross  of 
Christ  was  the  alpha  and  the  omega,  the  begin- 
ning, and  the  middle,  and  the  end,  of  all  Paul's 
preaching.  Paul  drew  all  his  doctrines,  and  all 
his  instructions,  and  all  his  reproofs,  out  of  the 
cross  of  Christ.  He  drew  his  profound  and 
poignant  doctrines  of  the  sinfulness  of  sin,  and 
the  consequent  misery  of  man,  out  of  the  cross  of 
Christ.  He  saw  and  he  felt  all  that  in  himself, 
and  in  the  whole  world ;  but  the  cross  of  Christ 
gave  a  new  profundity,  and  a  new  poignancy,  to 
all    that    to    him.       He    drew    his    incomparably 

55 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

magnificent  doctrines  of  the  grace  of  God  and  the 
love  of  Christ  out  of  the  cross  of  Christ :  those 
doctrines  of  his  in  the  preaching  of  which  he 
bursts  out  into  such  rapturous  doxologies.  The 
whole  of  the  life  of  faith  also,  in  all  its  manifold- 
ness,  and  in  all  its  universalness,  and  his  own  full 
assurance  of  everlasting  life, — all  that,  and  much 
more  than  all  that,  Paul,  by  his  splendid  genius, 
and  it  all  so  splendidly  sanctified  and  inspired, 
drew  out  of  the  cross  of  Christ.  Take  away  the 
cross  of  Christ  from  Paul,  and  he  is  as  weak  as 
any  other  man.  Paul  has  nothing  left  to  preach 
if  you  take  away  from  him  the  cross  of  Christ. 
His  mouth  is  shut.  His  pulpit  is  in  ruins.  His 
arm  is  broken.  He  is  of  all  men  most  miserable. 
But  let  God  reveal  the  cross  of  Christ  in  Paul, 
and,  straightway,  he  can  both  do,  and  endure,  all 
things.  Paul  is  henceforth  debtor  both  to  the 
Greeks  and  to  the  Barbarians ;  both  to  the  wise, 
and  to  the  unwise.  Once  reveal  the  cross  of  Christ 
in  Paul,  and  you  thereby  lay  a  life-long  necessity 
upon  him.  Yea,  woe  is  unto  him,  ever  after,  if  he 
preaches  not  the  Gospel  of  the  cross  of  Christ. 

We  preach  not  ourselves,  Paul  asserts  with  a 
good  conscience  in  another  sermon  of  his.  And 
yet,  at  the  same  time,  he  introduces  himself  into 
almost  every  sermon  he  preaches.  Paul  simply 
cannot  preach  the  cross  of  Christ  as  he  must 
preach  it,  without  boldly  bringing  himself  in,  as 
both  the  best  pattern  and  the  best  proof  of  what 
the  cross  of  Christ  can  do.  PauPs  salvation, — the 
absolute  graciousness  of  PauPs  salvation,  and  his 

56 


AS  A  PREACHER 

absolute  assurance  of  it, — these  things  are  the 
infallible  marks  of  their  authenticity  that  Paul 
prints  upon  every  Epistle  of  his.  The  cross  of 
Christ,  and  Paul's  salvation  by  that  cross,  are  the 
two  constant,  and  complementary,  topics  of  Paul's 
pulpit ;  they  are  but  the  two  sides  of  Paul's  shield 
of  salvation.  The  most  beautiful  English  preacher 
of  the  past  generation  has  told  us  that  his  conver- 
sion was  so  absorbing  and  so  abiding  that  it 
made  him  rest  ever  after  in  the  thought  of  two, 
and  two  only  absolute  and  luminously  self-evident 
beings,  himself  and  his  Creator.  And  so  it  was 
with  Paul's  conversion  also.  Only,  in  Paul's  case 
it  was  not  so  much  his  Creator  v/ho  was  so 
luminously  self-evident  to  Paul,  it  was  much  more 
his  Redeemer.  And  thus  it  was  that  in  Paul's 
preaching  there  were  always  present  those  two 
luminously  self-evident  subjects,  Paul's  sin  and 
Christ's  cross  :  Paul  the  chief  of  sinners,  and 
Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified.  And  thus  it  is 
that  Paul's  so  profound,  and  so  experimental, 
preaching  so  satisfies  us.  And  thus  it  is  also 
that  it  alone  satisfies  us.  When  we  are  pining 
away  under  some  secret  disease  if  our  physician 
comes  and  mocks  at  all  our  misery ;  if  he  treats 
our  mortal  wound  as  all  imagination  ;  if  he  rebukes 
and  abuses  us  as  if  it  were  all  so  much  melancholy, 
—  our  hearts  know  their  own  bitterness.  But  if 
we  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  wise  man  and  a  sound 
and  skilful  physician,  he  at  once  takes  in  the  whole 
seriousness  of  our  case.  Before  we  have  opened 
our  mouth  about  ourselves,  he  has  already  laid  his 

57 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

hand  on  our  hurt,  and  has  said  to  us, — Thou  art 
ill  to  death  indeed.  Thy  whole  head  is  sick  and 
thy  whole  heart  faint.  And  already  we  feel  that 
there  is  hope.  At  any  rate,  we  are  not  to  die 
under  the  hands  of  a  charlatan.  And  Paul  is  the 
furthest  of  all  our  physicians  from  a  charlatan. 
Paul  rips  open  all  the  dark  secrets  of  our  con- 
sciences, and  all  the  hidden  rottennesses  of  our 
hearts,  till  he  is  the  one  preacher  of  all  preachers 
for  us.  And  his  the  Gospel  of  all  Gospels.  At 
any  rate,  speaking  for  myself,  as  often  as  my  own 
sin  and  misery,  impossible  to  be  told,  again  close 
in  upon  me  till  my  broken  heart  cries  out.  Oh, 
wretchedest  of  men  that  I  am  !  Paul  is  instantly 
at  my  bedside  with  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  with 
his  own  case  told  to  me  to  fetch  back  my  life  to 
me.  Paul's  prescription,  as  the  physicians  call  it, 
never  fails  me.  Never.  As  often  as  seventy  times 
seven,  every  mortal  day  of  mine,  the  amazement 
and  the  misery  of  my  sinfulness  overwhelms  me, 
Paul  no  sooner  sets  forth  to  me  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified,  than  a  great  light  falls  on  my 
amazement,  and  a  great  alleviation  on  my  misery. 
It  is  a  dark  light.  It  is  a  dreadful  light.  It  is  a 
light  like  a  drawn  sword.  But  it  is  light,  where 
no  other  light  from  heaven,  or  from  earth,  could 
give  a  ray  of  light  to  me.  At  the  cross,  before 
the  cross,  under  the  cross,  upon  the  cross,  I  am  re- 
conciled to  God,  and  God  is  reconciled  to  me.  I 
am  reconciled  to  you  also,  and  you  to  me.  All 
the  hand-writings  in  heaven  and  earth  and  hell, 
that  were  so  bitter  against  me,  are  all  blotted  out 
58 


AS  A  PREACHER 

by  His  blood.  All  my  injustices  to  you  and  all  my 
injuries  from  you ;  all  my  animosities,  antipathies, 
alienations,  retaliations,  distastes,  and  dislikes,  all 
are  rooted  up  out  of  my  heart  by  the  cross  of  Christ. 
For  I  am  slain  to  myself  because  of  the  cross  of 
Christ.  The  one  and  only  cause  of  all  my  un- 
speakable sinfulness  and  misery, — myself ;  I,  myself, 
am  slain  to  death  for  ever  by  the  cross  of  Christ. 
My  self-love,  my  self-will,  my  self-seeking,  my  self- 
pleasing,  they  are  all  slain ;  or  what  is  as  good, 
they  have  got  their  sure  deathblow  by  the  cross  of 
Christ.  I  am  crucified  with  Christ :  nevertheless 
I  live ;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me :  and 
the  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live  by  the 
faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me,  and  gave 
Himself  for  me. 

He  alone  is  a  '  right  divine '  who  can  preach 
this  faith  of  the  Son  of  God  properly,  says  Luther. 
He  is  a  '  right  preacher  **  who  can  distinguish, 
first  to  himself,  and  then  to  his  people,  faith  from 
the  law,  and  grace  from  works,  says  the  Reformer. 
Now  Paul  was  a  right  divine  and  he  was  the  first 
father  and  forerunner  of  all  such.  And  never 
more  so  than  when  he  is  putting  forth  all  his 
stupendous  power  to  preach  that  divinest  doctrine 
of  his,  that  our  best  obedience,  if  offered  in  the 
very  least  measure  for  our  salvation,  is  a  complete 
abandonment,  and  a  fatal  denial  of  the  cross  of 
Christ.  Some  men  will  start  up  at  that,  and  will 
protest  at  it,  and  debate  against  it.  So  did  Paul 
as  long  as  he  was  still  alive,  and  kept  the  clothes 
of  them  that  stoned  Stephen.      And  so  did  I  for 

59 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

a  long  time.  But  now  that  greatest  and  best  of 
all  Paul's  doctrines  of  grace,  as  often  as  I  come  on 
it  in  its  bud  in  Abraham,  and  in  its  full  flower 
and  fruit  in  Paul  and  in  Luther,  it  makes  my 
heart  to  sing  and  dance  within  me.  And  it  comes 
tc  me  from  the  God  of  my  salvation  a  thousand 
times  every  day.  Why  was  that  blessed  doctrine 
so  long  in  being  preached  by  some  right  divine  to 
me  ?  Why  was  I,  myself,  so  long  in  learning  and 
in  preaching  this  first  principle  of  the  doctrine  of 
Christ  ?  And  why  do  I  go  back  so  often,  to  this 
day,  to  Moses  and  to  myself  ?  I  have  a  desire  to 
depart  and  to  be  with  Christ,  says  Paul  to  the 
Philippians.  And  so  have  L  But,  before  God, 
I  lie  not.  He  is  my  witness,  that  I  beseech  Him 
every  day  about  this  very  matter,  and  about  little 
besides.  I  beseech  Him  every  hour  of  the  day, 
that  I  may  be  spared  for  some  more  years  yet,  in 
order  that  I  may  grow,  as  I  have  never  yet  grown, 
into  this  selfsame  faith  of  the  Son  of  God.  Into 
the  faith  that  justifies  the  ungodly,  and  sanctifies 
the  sinful,  and  brings  love,  and  peace,  and  joy,  and 
hope,  and  full  assurance  of  everlasting  life,  to  my 
soul.  And  to  preach  all  that  as  I  have  never  yet 
preached  it :  and,  then,  you  would  perhaps  take 
my  epitaph  out  of  Luther  on  the  Galatians,  and 
would  write  this  sentence  over  me — '  Come,  and 
see,  all  ye  that  pass  by,  for  here  lies  a  right 
divine.'  Why  is  it  that  this  epitaph  is  so  seldom 
to  be  read  in  any  of  our  churchyards  over  our 
ministers  ?  Why  are  there  so  few  divines  so  right 
in  Scotland  as  to  satisfy  Paul  and  Luther  ?  Why 
60 


AS  A  PREACHER 

are  there  so  few  of  our  young  preachers  who  make 
Paul's  determination,  and  stand  to  it  ?  As  often 
as  I  think  of  this  great  determination  of  his,  I 
always  remember  Hooker's  immortal  sermon  on 
Justification.  Hooker,  in  this  matter  at  any  rate, 
was  a  right  Pauline  and  Lutheran  divine.  And 
what  does  that  master  in  Israel,  and  that  equal 
master  of  an  English  style,  say  to  us  on  this 
point  ?  Every  preacher  of  Christ,  and  of  faith  in 
the  cross  of  Christ,  should  have  this  passage  printed 
indelibly  on  his  heart.  '  Cheist  hath  merited 
righteousness  for  as  many  as  are  found  in  him. 
And  in  Him  God  findeth  us,  if  we  be  faithful  ; 

FOR     BY     faith     WE     ARE     INCORPORATED     INTO     HiM. 

Then,  although  we  be  in  ourselves  altogether 
sinful  and  unrighteous,  yet  even  the  man  who  is 
in  himself  hvipious,  full  of  iniquity,  full  of  sin  ; 

HIM  BEING  FOUND  IN  ChRIST  THROUGH  FAITH,  AND 
HAVING     HIS    SIN     IN    HATRED    THROUGH     REPENTANCE, 

HIM  God  beholdeth  with  a  gracious  eye  ;  putteth 

AWAY  HIS  SIN  BY  NOT  IMPUTING  IT  ;  TAKETH  aUITE 
AWAY  THE  PUNISHMENT  DUE  THEREUNTO,  BY  PARDON- 
ING   IT  ;     AND    ACCEPTETH    HIM    IN    ChRIST    JeSUS,    AS 

perfectly  righteous,  as  if  he  had  fulfilled  all 
that  is  commanded  him  in  the  law  ;  shall  i  say 
more  perfectly  righteous  than  if  himself  had 
fulfilled  the  whole  law  ?  i  must  take  heed 
what  i  say,  but  the  apostle  saith,  "  god  made 
Him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knt:w  no  sin,  that  we 

MIGHT  BE  MADE  THE  RIGHTE0USNT:SS  OF  GoD  IN  HiM.*" 

Such  we  are  in  the  sight  of  God  the  Father, 
AS  IS  the  very  Son  of  God  Himself.      Let  it  be 

6i 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

COUNTED  FOLLY,  OR  PHRENSY,  OR  FURY,  OR  WHAT- 
SOEVER. It  is  our  WISDOM,  and  our  COMFORT  :  WE 
CARE  FOR  NO  KNOWLEDGE  IN  THE  WORLD  BUT  THIS, 
THAT  MAN  HATH  SINNED,  AND  GoD  HATH  SUFFERED  ; 
THAT    God    HATH    MADE    HiMSELF    THE    SIN    OF    MEN, 

and  that  men  are  made  the  righteousness  of 
God.' 


62 


VI 
PAUL  AS  A  PASTOR 

IN  his  painstaking  industry  for  Theophilus  and 
for  us,  Luke  has  provided  us  with  an  extract- 
minute,  so  to  call  it,  copied  out  of  the  session-books 
of  Ephesus.  Paul  had  been  the  minister  and  the 
moderator  of  the  kirk-session  of  Ephesus  for  three 
never-to-be-forgotten  years.  But  he  has  now  for 
some  time  past  been  away  preaching  the  Gospel 
and  planting  Churches  elsewhere,  and  another 
elder  of  experience  and  of  authority  has  all  that 
time  sat  in  the  Ephesian  chair  that  the  Apostle 
used  to  occupy  with  such  authority  and  acceptance. 
But  Paul  is  now  coming  near  the  end  of  his  life. 
He  knows  that,  and  he  has  a  great  longing,  and  a 
most  natural  longing  it  is,  to  see  his  old  colleagues 
in  Ephesus  once  more  before  he  goes  to  be  with 
Christ.  And  thus  it  is  that  at  his  special  request 
an  in  hunc  effectum  meeting  of  kirk-session  has 
been  called,  an  extract-minute  of  which  is  to  be 
read  by  the  curious  to  this  day  in  the  twentieth 
chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Now  from 
this  priceless  little  paper  of  Luke's  we  learn  that, 
the  session  being  constituted,  Paul  immediately 
took    occasion   to   review    those    long    past    three 

63 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

years  that  he  had  spent  in  their  city,  and  had  sat 
at  the  head  of  their  court.  Paul  had  given  three 
of  the  best  years  of  his  life  to  Ephesus,  and  it  was 
only  natural  that  he  should  take  occasion  to  go 
over  those  three  years  and  look  at  some  of  the 
lessons  that  those  three  years  had  left  behind 
them,  both  for  himself  and  for  his  successors  in 
the  eldership  of  Ephesus.  And  it  is  just  those 
fine  lessons  that  this  first  of  Church-historians, 
with  such  an  admirable  literary  instinct,  and  with 
such  sanctified  industry,  has  here  supplied  us  with. 
Paul  never  spoke  better.  Paul  simply  excels  him- 
self. There  is  all  that  stateliness  that  never  for- 
sakes Paul.  There  is  all  that  majesty  that  Paul 
bears  about  with  him  at  all  times  and  into  all 
places.  All  united  to  a  humility,  and  an  intimacy, 
and  a  confidingness,  that  always  carry  captive  to 
Paul  the  hearts  of  all  men  who  have  hearts.  Paul 
is  simply  unapproachable  in  a  scene  like  this.  Paul 
has  no  equal  and  no  second  in  the  matters  and  the 
manners  of  the  heart.  Paul  is  almost  his  Master 
over  again  in  these  matters  and  manners  of  the 
heart,  so  much  so,  that  when  it  was  all  over,  we 
do  not  wonder  that  they  all  wept  sore,  and  fell  on 
PauPs  neck,  and  kissed  him,  sorrowing  most  of  all 
for  the  words  which  he  spake,  that  they  should 
see  his  face  no  more.  In  no  other  single  passage 
in  all  PauPs  Life  by  Luke,  or  in  all  his  own 
Epistles  even,  do  we  see  the  finished  friend  and 
the  perfect  pastor  as  in  this  sederunt,  so  to  call  it, 
of  the  kirk-session  of  Ephesus.  This  sederunt, 
and  this  extract-minute  of  it,  is   a  very  glass  in 

64 


AS  A  PASTOR 

which  every  minister  and  every  elder  may  to  this 
day  see  themselves,  and  what  manner  of  minister 
and  what  manner  of  elder  they  are,  and  are  not. 

'  Serving  the  Lord,'  says  Paul  about  those  three 
years.  And  Paul  always  begins  with  that  same 
thing.  He  begins  every  sermon  of  his,  and  every 
Epistle  of  his,  with  serving  the  Lord.  I,  Paul, 
the  servant  of  the  Lord,  is  his  salutation  and  seal 
in  every  Epistle  of  his.  And  hence  his  stateliness, 
and  hence  his  high  seriousness,  and  hence  his  un- 
paralleled humility,  and  hence  his  overpowering 
authority,  and  hence  his  whole,  otherwise  un- 
accountable, life,  pastoral  and  all.  No  :  the  elders 
of  Ephesus  did  not  need  to  be  reminded  that  Paul 
had  not  spent  those  three  years  serving  and  satis- 
fying them.  They  got  splendid  service  out  of 
Paul,  both  for  themselves  and  for  their  families, 
but  all  that  was  so  because  Paul  did  not  think  of 
them  at  all,  but  only  of  his  Master.  There  was  a 
colossal  pride  in  Paul,  and  at  the  same  time  a 
prostrate  humility,  such  that  they  had  never  seen 
anything  like  it  in  any  other  man  ;  a  submissive- 
ness  and  a  self-surrender  to  all  men  such  that  as 
those  three  years  went  on,  taught  to  all  the  teach- 
able men  among  them  far  more  for  their  own 
character  and  conduct  than  all  his  inspired  preach- 
ing. If  Paul  had  both  forgiven  and  forgotten 
those  unfortunate  misunderstandings  and  self-asser- 
tions that  will  come  up  among  the  very  best 
ministers  and  elders,  they  had  not  forgiven  or 
forgotten  themselves  for  those  days,  or  for  their 
part  in  them.     And  thus  it  was  that  when  Paul  said 

E  65 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

these  words  : — '  Serving  the  Lord,'  those  who  had 
known  Paul  best  were  the  first  to  say  that  it  was  all 
true.  Now  that  it  was  all  long  past,  they  all  saw 
and  admitted  to  themselves,  and  to  one  another, 
how  in  this  disputed  matter  and  in  that,  Paul 
had  neither  served  himself,  nor  them,  but  the  Lord 
only. 

We  do  not  at  first  sight  see  exactly  why  Paul 
should  be  so  sore,  and  so  sensitive,  and  so  full  of 
such  scrupulosity,  about  money  matters.  But  he 
had  only  too  good  cause  to  say  all  he  said,  and  do 
all  he  did,  in  that  root-of- all -evil  matter.  It  was 
one  of  the  many  abominable  slanders  that  his  sordid- 
hearted  enemies  continually  circulated  against  Paul, 
that,  all  the  time,  he  was  feathering  his  own  nest. 
He  is  collecting  money,  they  said,  from  all  his 
so-called  Churches,  and  is  stealthily  laying  up  a 
fortune  for  himself  and  for  his  family  in  Tarsus 
and  Jerusalem.  You  all  know  how  certain 
scandals  follow  eminent  and  successful  men  as  its 
shadow  follows  a  solid  substance.  We  are  ashamed, 
down  to  this  day,  to  see  Paul  compelled  to  defend 
both  his  apostleship  and  himself  from  such  tongues 
and  such  pens  ;  from  such  whisperers  and  such  back- 
biters. And  yet,  no.  We  would  not  have  lost 
such  outbursts  as  this  for  anything,  for  we  would 
never  have  known  Paul,  nor  have  loved  him,  nor 
have  believed  in  him  and  in  his  gospel,  as  we  do, 
had  we  not  been  present  at  that  table  beside  those 
men  who  had  seen  Paul  with  all  their  eyes  day 
and  night  for  three  years.  I  defy  you !  he 
exclaimed,  as  he  stood  up  in  indignation  and  held 
66 


AS  A  PASTOR 

out  his  callid  hands — I  defy  you  to  deny  it.  I 
have  coveted  no  man's  silver,  or  gold,  or  apparel. 
Yea,  ye  yourselves  know  that  these  hands — and  as 
he  held  them  up,  the  assembled  elders  saw  a 
tongue  of  truth  in  every  seam  and  scar  that 
covered  them — these  hands  have  ministered  to  all 
my  own  necessities,  and  to  them  that  were  with 
me.      Noble  hands  of  a  noble  heart ! 

Had  his  apostolic  stipend  been  in  their  power 
to  reduce  it  or  to  increase  it ;  had  a  fund  for  his 
old  age,  or  a  legacy  for  his  sister  and  her  son 
been  at  all  in  Paul's  mind  :  then,  in  that  case,  he 
might  have  been  tempted  to  keep  back  some  things 
in  his  preaching,  and  to  put  some  other  things  for- 
ward. At  the  same  time,  though  considerations 
of  money  had  nothing  at  all  to  do  with  it,  some 
other  matters  undoubtedly  had  to  do  with  it.  To 
me  it  is  as  clear  as  anything  can  be,  that  the  Apostle 
had  been  tempted,  and  had  even  been  commanded, 
by  those  very  men  sitting  there,  to  keep  back  some 
things  out  of  his  preaching  that  he  was  wont  to 
bring  forward  into  it.  Paul  would  never  have  said 
what  he  did  say  at  that  heart-melting  moment, 
and  he  would  never  have  said  it  with  the  heart- 
melting  emphasis  he  did  say  it,  unless  he  had  been 
speaking  straight  to  the  point.  It  was  all  long 
past  now.  He  would  never  again  either  please  or 
displease  any  of  those  elders,  or  any  of  their  wives 
or  children,  any  more.  And  thus  it  is  that  he 
so  returns  upon  his  past  temptations,  and  with  a 
good  conscience  toward  the  truth,  tells  them  that 
they  may  safely  take  all  he  had  ever  taught  them 

67 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

and  build  upon  it ;  for  he  had  neither  kept  back 
anything  that  had  been  committed  to  his  ministry 
among  them,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  had  he 
added  anything  of  his  own  to  it.  I  kept  back 
nothing  that  was  profitable  to  you.  I  shunned 
not  to  declare  to  you  the  whole  council  of  God. 
In  that  also  there  is  a  glass  held  up  for  all 
ministers  and  all  congregations  in  which  to  see 
and  to  examine  both  themselves,  and  all  their  past 
and  fast-passing  relations  to  one  another,  both  in 
the  pulpit  and  in  the  pew. 

'  And  with  all  humility  of  mind.'  Evangelical 
humility,  as  Jonathan  Edwards  so  splendidly  treats 
it,  lay  deep  down  like  a  foundation-stone  under  all 
Paul's  attainments  as  a  saint  of  God  and  as  an 
apostle  of  Jesus  Christ.  Paul's  Master  had  taken 
the  proper  precautions  at  the  beginning  of  Paul's 
apostleship  that  he  should  be  all  through  it,  and 
down  to  the  end  of  it,  the  humblest  man  in  all  the 
world.  By  that  terrible  thorn  in  his  flesh ;  by  a 
conscience  full  of  the  most  remorseful  memories ; 
as  well  as  by  incessant  trials  and  persecutions  and 
suff'erings  of  all  conceivable  kinds,  Paul  was  made 
and  was  kept  the  humblest  of  all  humble  men. 
As  all  our  preachers  and  pastors  still  are,  or  ought 
to  be.  For  they  too  have  each  their  own  thorn 
in  their  own  flesh,  their  own  crook  in  their  own 
lot,  their  own  sword  of  God  in  their  own  heart 
and  conscience.  If  it  were  nothing  else,  their  daily 
work  is  the  most  humiliating  and  heart-breaking 
work  in  all  the  world.  All  other  callings  may  be 
accomplished  and  laid  down;  may  reward  and  may 
68 


AS  A  PASTOR 

bring  pride  to  those  who  follow  them  with  all 
their  might ;  but  never  in  this  world  the  Christian 
ministry.  And  not  his  defeats  and  disappoint- 
ments among  his  people  only ;  but  still  more,  the 
things  in  a  minister  himself  that  account  for  and 
justify  all  those  defeats  and  disappointments — all 
that  makes  his  whole  ministry  to  collapse,  and 
to  fall  in  on  his  heart  continually,  like  a  house 
that  has  been  built  on  the  sand.  Till,  whatever 
other  gifts  and  graces  a  minister  may  be  lacking 
in,  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  lack  humility. 
With  all  humility  of  mind,  says  Paul  to  the 
assembled  elders  of  Ephesus.  Humility  of  all 
kinds,  he  means ;  and  drawn  out  of  all  experi- 
ences ;  and  shown  to  all  sorts  of  people.  Till, 
both  for  a  garment  of  office,  and  for  a  grace  of 
character,  a  minister  is  clothed  from  head  to  foot 
with  spiritual  and  evangelical  humility. 

'  And  from  house  to  house  warning  every  one 
night  and  day  with  tears.'  The  whole  of 
Ephesus  was  Paul's  parish.  And,  not  once  in 
a  whole  year,  like  the  most  diligent  of  us,  but 
every  day,  and  back  again  every  night,  Paul  was  in 
every  house.  Paul  was  never  in  his  bed.  He  did 
not  take  time  so  much  as  to  eat.  As  his  people 
in  Anwoth  said  about  Samuel  Rutherford,  Paul 
was  always  working  with  his  hands,  always  work- 
ing with  his  mind,  always  preaching,  always 
visiting.  '  At  all  seasons '  are  Paul's  own 
enviable  words.  At  marriages,  at  baptisms,  at 
feasts,  at  funerals,  at  the  baths,  and  in  the  market- 
places.    Now  down  in  an  old  woman's  cellar,  and 

69 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

now  up  in  a  poor  student's  garret.  Some  men 
find  time  for  everything.  Tiiey  seem  to  be  able  to 
manufacture  time  just  as  they  need  it.  The  sun 
and  the  moon  and  the  stars  all  stand  still  in 
order  that  some  men  may  get  sufficient  time  to 
finish  their  work.  It  is  for  such  men  that  sun 
and  moon  are  created,  and  are  kept  in  their  places  ; 
they  take  their  ordinances  from  such  men,  and 
from  the  Task-master  of  such  men.  Paul,  I 
suppose,  is  the  only  minister  that  ever  lived  who 
could  have  read  Richard  Baxter's  Reformed  Pastor 
without  going  half-mad  with  remorse,  and  with  a 
fearful  looking  for  of  judgment.  '  Another  part  is 
to  have  a  special  care  of  each  member  of  our  flock. 
We  must  labour  to  be  acquainted  with  all  our 
people.  To  know  all  their  inclinations  and  con- 
versation :  for  if  we  know  not  the  temperament  or 
the  disease,  we  are  likely  to  prove  but  unsuccessful 
physicians.  A  minister  is  not  only  for  public 
preaching.  One  word  of  seasonable  and  prudent 
advice  will  do  that  good  that  many  sermons  will 
not  do.  See  that  they  have  some  profitable 
moving  book  besides  the  Bible  in  each  family ;  and 
if  they  have  not,  persuade  them  to  buy  some  small 
piece  of  great  use.  If  they  be  not  able  to  buy 
them,  give  them  some.  If  you  cannot,  get  some 
gentleman,  or  other  rich  man  that  are  willing  to  do 
good,  to  do  it.  Another  part  lieth  in  visiting  the 
sick,  and  in  helping  them  to  prepare  either  for  a 
more  fruitful  life,  or  for  a  happy  death.'  There 
are  few  things  in  ministerial  history  that  makes  my 
heart  bleed  like  the  tragedy  of  Jonathan  Edwards's 
70 


AS  A  PASTOR 

breach  with  his  congregation,  and  then  his 
banishment  from  his  congregation.  And  I  never 
can  get  over  it  that,  in  spite  of  all  else,  had 
Edwards  been  a  pastor  like  Paul,  that  terrible 
shipwreck  could  never  have  taken  place.  And, 
yet,  I  must  frankly  confess,  that  explanation  does 
not  satisfy  every  case,  even  in  my  own  experience. 
For  some  of  the  best  pastors  I  have  ever  known, 
have  been  the  victims  of  the  cruellest  and  most 
heartless  treachery  and  ingratitude,  and  that  from 
some  of  their  most  pampered  people. 

Even  the  Apostle  Peter  makes  the  confession 
that  he  had  found  some  things  in  Paul's  Epistles 
hard  to  be  understood.  And  so  have  I.  And  not 
in  the  Romans  and  the  Colossians  only,  but  almost 
more  in  this  kirk-session  speech  of  his.  I  can 
understand  him,  even  if  I  cannot  compete  with  him, 
in  his  incomparable  pulpit  and  pastoral  work.  I 
myself  go  about,  in  a  way,  preaching  repentance 
toward  God,  and  faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  But  after  I  am  like  to  drop  with  my  work, 
and  most  of  all  with  the  arrears  of  it,  Paul 
absolutely  prostrates  me,  and  tramples  me  to  death, 
when  he  stands  up  among  his  elders  and  deacons 
and  says  :  '  I  take  you  to  record  this  day  that  I  am 
pure  from  the  blood  of  all  men  !  ■*  I  do  not  find 
his  rapture  into  the  third  heavens  hard  to  be  under- 
stood, nor  his  revelations  and  inspirations,  nor  his 
thorn  in  the  flesh,  nor  any  of  his  doctrines  of 
Adam,  or  of  Christ,  or  of  election,  or  of  justifi- 
cation, or  of  sanctification,  or  of  the  final  persever- 
ance of  the  saints.      It  is  none  of  all  these  things 

71 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

that  I  am  tempted  to  wrest.  But  it  absolutely 
passes  my  imagination  how  a  horny-handed  tent- 
maker,  with  twelve  hours  in  his  day,  or  make  it 
eighteen,  and  with  seven  days  in  his  week  ;  a  mortal 
man,  and  as  yet  an  unglorified,  and  indeed,  far 
from  sanctified,  man,  could  look  all  his  elders,  and 
all  their  wives,  and  all  their  sons  and  daughters  in 
the  face,  and  could  say  those  terrible  words  about 
their  blood.  Jesus  Christ,  who  finished  the  work 
given  Him  to  do,  never  said  more  than  that.  The 
only  thing  that  ever  I  heard  to  come  near  that 
was  when  a  Highland  minister  was  leaving  his 
parish,  and  said  from  the  pulpit  in  his  farewell 
sermon,  that  he  took  all  his  people  to  witness  that 
he  had  spoken,  not  only  from  the  pulpit,  but 
personally,  and  in  private,  to  every  single  one  of  his 
people  about  the  state  of  their  souls.  Altogether, 
Paul  was  such  a  preacher,  and  such  a  pastor,  and 
such  a  saint,  that  I  cannot  blame  them  for  think- 
ing in  those  days  that  he  must  be  nothing  less 
than  the  Holy  Ghost  Himself,  who  had  been 
promised  by  Christ  for  to  come.  Such  was  Paul's 
character,  and  such  was  his  work,  and  such  was  his 
success,  both  as  a  preacher  and  a  ^  ^stor. 

With  all  that,  and  after  all  that  is  said,  I  am 
still  dazzled  and  absolutely  fascinated  with  Paul's 
pastoral  work.  I  cannot  get  Paul's  pastoral  work 
out  of  my  mind.  I  cannot  get  it  out  of  my 
imagination.  I  cannot  get  it  out  of  my  conscience. 
I  cannot  get  it  out  of  my  heart.  Above  all  his  other 
discoveries,  when  Professor  Ramsay  goes  east  to  dig 
for  Paul  in  Ephesus,  I  would  like  him  to  be  able 
72 


AS  A  PASTOR 

to  disinter  PauFs  pastoral-visitation  book.  And 
with  it  the  key  to  those  cipher  and  shorthand  entries 
about  what  he  said  and  what  he  did  in  this  house 
and  in  that,  and  day  and  night  with  tears.  The 
hours  he  gave  to  it,  his  division  of  the  day  and  of 
the  night,  the  Psalms  he  read  and  opened  up  from 
house  to  house,  the  houses  that  made  him  weep, 
and  the  houses  that  sent  him  back  to  his  tent- 
making  singing.  Did  Paul  make  it  a  rule  to  read, 
and  expound,  and  pray,  in  every  house,  and  on  every 
visit  ?  Did  he  send  word  by  the  deacon  of  the 
district  that  he  was  coming  ?  Or  did  he  just,  in 
our  disorderly  way,  start  off  and  drop  in  here  and 
there  as  this  case  and  that  came  up  into  his  over- 
crowded mind  ?  Till  the  learned  Professor  comes 
upon  Paul's  private  note- book,  for  myself  I  will 
continue  to  interpret  Paul's  farewell  address  to  the 
kirk-session  of  Ephesus  with  some  liberality.  Paul 
cannot  really  mean  me  to  understand  that  he  was 
always  weeping,  and  always  catechising,  and  always 
expounding,  and  always  on  his  knees  in  the  houses 
of  Ephesus.  No ;  Paul  was  Paul  in  all  parts  of 
his  pastoral  work,  as  well  as  in  everything  else. 
Paul  is  the  last  speaker  to  interpret  in  a  wooden 
way,  far  less  in  a  cast-iron  way.  Paul,  you  may 
depend  upon  it,  was  quite  content  some  days  just 
to  have  waved  his  hand  in  at  that  window,  and  to 
have  saluted  this  and  that  man  in  the  street,  and 
to  have  been  saluted  in  return  by  this  and  that 
gentlemanly  little  schoolboy  with  his  satchel  on 
his  back.  Paul  would  often  drop  in,  as  we  say, 
not  indeed  to  curse  the  weather,  and  to  canvass  the 

73 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

approaching  marriages,  like  William  Law's  minister, 
but,  all  the  same,  to  rejoice  with  the  bridegroom 
and  the  bride,  and  to  set  down  their  exact  date  in 
his  diary,  so  as  to  be  sure  to  be  on  the  spot  in 
good  time,  and  in  his  best  attire.  If  you  are  a 
pastor,  and  if  your  visits  up  and  down  among  your 
people  help  to  keep  your  and  their  friendships  in 
repair ;  to  re-kindle  and  to  fan  the  smoking  flax 
of  brotherly  love ;  if  your  visits  operate  to  the 
cementing  and  the  stability  of  the  congregation ; 
then,  that  is  already  more  than  one-half  of  the 
whole  end  of  your  ministry,  both  pulpit  and  pas- 
toral, accomplished.  And,  with  all  your  preach- 
ing, and  with  all  your  pastoral  work  performed 
like  PauPs,  in  intention  and  in  industry  at  least, 
you  also  will  surely  be  able,  with  great  humility  as 
well  as  with  great  assurance  of  faith,  to  bid  your 
people  goodbye,  and  your  kirk-session,  saying, — 
And  now,  brethren,  I  commend  you  to  God,  and 
to  the  word  of  His  grace,  which  is  able  to  build 
you  up,  and  to  give  you  an  inheritance  among  all 
them  which  are  sanctified. 


74 


VII 

PAUL  AS  A  CONTROVERSIALIST 

*^1[7'0E  is  me,  my  mother,  that  thou  hast 
V  V  borne  me  a  man  of  strife  and  conten- 
tion to  the  whole  earth,'  complained  the  sorrow- 
ful prophet.  And  the  Apostle  now  before  us 
might  have  made  that  very  same  complaint,  and 
with  much  more  cause.  For  Paul,  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end  of  his  apostleship,  was  simply 
plunged  into  a  perfect  whirlpool  of  all  kinds  of 
contention  and  controversy.  V^herever  Paul  was 
sent  to  preach  ;  north,  south,  east,  and  west,  thither 
his  persecutors  pursued  him.  Till,  what  Jeremiah 
exclaimed  somewhat  passionately  and  somewhat 
hyperbolically  concerning  himself,  became  literally 
true  in  the  case  of  Paul.  For  Paul,  without  any 
exaggeration,  was  made  nothing  less  than  a  man  of 
strife  and  of  contention  to  the  whole  earth. 

But,  then,  this  is  always  to  be  kept  in  mind, 
that  Paul  had  a  splendid  equipment,  both  by 
nature  and  by  grace,  for  his  unparalleled  life  of  apo- 
stolic controversy.  Paul  started  out  to  face  that 
life  of  temptation,  as  nearly  crucified  and  completely 
stone-dead  to  himself,  as  any  man  can  ever  hope  to 
be  in  this  mortal  life.     It  is  our  incurable  self-love 

7S 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

that  is  the  bitter  root  of  all  our  controversies, 
whether  those  controversies  are  carried  on  by  the 
tongue,  or  by  the  pen,  or  by  the  sword.  Once 
slay  our  incurable  self-love,  and  once  plant  in  its 
place  the  love  of  God  and  the  love  of  our  neigh- 
bour, and  you  have  already  as  good  as  beaten  our 
swords  into  ploughshares  and  our  spears  into 
pruning-hooks.  It  is  our  self-idolatry  and  our 
self-aggrandisement ;  it  is  our  greed,  and  our  pride, 
and  our  intolerance,  and  our  contempt  and  scorn 
of  all  other  men,  that  is  the  one  and  only  cause  of 
all  our  contentions  and  controversies.  Now,  look 
at  Paul.  You  cannot  read  Paul's  Epistles  without 
being  constantly  captivated  with  the  extraordinary 
geniality,  courtesy,  humility,  simplicity,  and  loving- 
kindness,  of  Paul.  The  Apostle  Paul,  it  has  been  said 
at  the  cost  of  a  certain  anachronism  and  anomaly 
of  speech,  was  the  finest  gentleman  that  ever  lived. 
And  if  we  take  both  the  etymology,  and  the  old 
English  usage  of  that  term,  then  it  may  quite 
well  be  let  stand  as  a  most  succinct  and  a  most 
expressive  description  of  the  Apostle's  character. 
Coleridge  says  that  while  Luther  was  by  no  means 
so  perfect  a  gentleman  as  Paul,  yet  the  Reformer 
was  almost  as  great  a  man  of  genius.  And  Luther 
gives  us  a  taste  both  of  his  own  genius  and  of  his 
own  gentlemanliness  also,  in  what  he  says  so  often 
about  Paul.  Luther  is  always  saying  such  things 
as  these  about  Paul.  '  Paul  was  gentle,  and  tract- 
able, and  makeable,  in  his  whole  life.  Paul  was 
sweet,  and  mild,  and  courteous,  and  soft-spoken. 
Paul  could  wink  at  other  men's  faults  and  failings, 

76 


AS  A  CONTROVERSIALIST 

or  else  expound  them  to  the  best.  Paul  could  be 
well  contented  to  yield  up  his  own  way,  and  to 
give  place  and  honour  to  all  other  men ;  even  to 
the  froward  and  the  intractable^  In  short,  Paul's 
unfailing  gentlemanliness  is  his  constant  character 
in  all  the  emergencies  of  his  extraordinary  life/ 
So  speaks  of  Paul  one  of  the  most  Paul-like  men  of 
the  modern  world.  And  an  English  gentleman,  if 
ever  there  was  one,  has  said  of  Paul  in  more  than 
one  inimitable  sermon  :  '  There  is  not  one  of  any 
of  those  refinements  and  delicacies  of  feeling,  that 
are  the  result  of  advanced  civilisation,  nor  any  one 
of  those  proprieties  and  embellishments  of  conduct 
in  which  the  cultivated  intellect  delights,  but  Paul 
is  a  pattern  of  it.  And  that  in  the  midst  of 
an  assemblage  of  other  supernatural  excellences 
which  is  the  characteristic  endowment  of  apostles 
and  saints.' 

Now,  all  that  arose,  to  begin  with,  out  of  Paul's 
finely  compounded  character  by  birth.  After 
Mary,  Paul's  mother  must  surely  have  been  the 
most  blessed  of  women.  And  then  after  his 
birth  in  Tarsus  there  was  his  better  birth  from 
above.  And  then,  with  all  that,  there  was  the 
lifelong  schooling  that  Paul  put  himself  through, 
amid  the  endless  trials  and  temptations,  conten- 
tions and  controversies,  of  his  apostolic  life.  By 
all  these  remarkable,  and  indeed  unparalleled, 
means,  Paul  came  more  and  more  to  be  of  that 
unequalled  grace  of  fellow-feeling  with  all  other 
men,  and  that  noble  temper  of  accommodation  and 
adaptation  to  all  other  men,  in  which  he  stands 

17 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

out  and  is  unrivalled  at  the  head  of  all  the  saints 
of  God.  Unrivalled.  For  no  sooner  has  Paul  come 
into  the  same  room  with  yoia,  than,  that  moment, 
you  feel  a  spell  come  over  you.  You  do  not  know 
what  it  is  exactly  that  has  come  over  you,  but  you 
feel  sweetened,  and  strengthened,  and  happy.  It  is 
Paul.  You  have  never  been  in  PauPs  presence 
before,  and  therefore  your  present  feelings  are  so 
new  to  you.  For,  all  the  time  you  are  together, 
all  the  time  that  he  talks  with  you,  and  writes  to 
you,  and  even  debates  and  contends  with  you,  Paul 
sees  everything  with  your  eyes,  and  hears  every- 
thing with  your  ears,  and  feels  everything  with 
your  feelings.  It  was  this  that  so  carried  all  men 
off  their  feet  with  Paul.  It  was  this  that  made 
Paul  such  a  preacher,  and  such  a  pastor,  and  such 
a  friend,  ay,  and  such  an  enemy.  You  could  not 
have  resisted  Paul.  You  could  not  have  shut  Paul 
out  of  your  heart,  with  all  your  prejudices  at  him, 
and  with  all  your  determination  never  to  like  him, 
and  never  to  give  in  to  him.  Something  like  what 
Jesus  Christ  was  to  Paul,  that  Paul  was  to  all  men. 
You  could  not  but  give  yourself  up  to  Paul,  he  so 
gave  himself  up  to  you.  Origen  tells  us  that 
there  were  some  men  in  the  early  church  so  carried 
captive  by  the  Apostle  that  they  actually  believed 
Paul  to  be  the  indwelling  Comforter  Himself  come 
in  the  flesh,  and  come  into  their  hearts.  And 
Origen  confesses  to  having  had  a  certain  fellow- 
feeling  with  those  heretics. 

Now,   my   brethren,    to    come    in    all    this    to 
ourselves.      For,  here  also,  it  is  the  old  story,  let 

78 


AS  A  CONTROVERSIALIST 

a  man  examine  himself.  Well,  Paul  was  born  a 
gentleman  already.  Now,  if  you  have  not  been  so 
bom, yet  I  have  heard  it  said  that  grace  will  make  the 
most  unlikely  of  men  a  gentleman.  I  do  not  deny 
that ;  only,  I  must  say  I  have  never  known  a  case  of 
it.  Tertullian  has  a  saying  to  the  effect  that  some 
men  are  as  good  as  Christian  men  already,  just  by 
their  birth  of  their  mother.  Now  Paul  was  one  of 
those  happy  men.  Paul  was  born  with  a  big  and 
a  tender  heart,  and  divine  grace  had  all  that  done 
to  her  hand  beforehand  in  Paul.  Persecutor  and  all, 
there  was,  all  the  time,  the  making  of  the  most 
perfect  Christian  gentleman  in  all  Christendom  in 
Paul.  Now,  you  will  sometimes  meet  with  men  of 
PauFs  noble  begetting  and  noble  breeding  among 
ourselves.  Not  very  often  indeed,  but  sometimes. 
God  has  not  left  Himself  wholly  without  a  witness, 
even  among  ourselves.  Men  you  cannot  pick  a 
quarrel  with  even  when  you  try.  Men  you  always  get 
your  own  way  with  them.  Men  you  always  get  a 
soft  look  and  a  soft  answer  from  them.  Men  who, 
when  you  are  a  churl  to  them,  are  all  the  more 
gentlemanly  to  you.  Men  to  whom  you  may  be 
as  self-opinioned  and  self-willed  as  you  like,  but  it 
takes  two  to  make  a  quarrel ;  and,  after  all,  you 
are  only  one.  Now,  if  any  of  you  have  any  of  that 
rare  original  in  you,  bless  God  for  it  every  day, 
and  bless  all  men  round  about  you  with  it  every  day. 
For  there  is  no  greater  blessing  to  men  and  glory 
to  God  in  all  this  self-enclosed  and  alienated  life. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  you  are  not  naturally  a 
Christian   gentleman^  and   yet   truly   wish   to   be 

79 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

such,  then,  know  this,  that  God  has  surpassed 
Himself  in  fitting  up  and  fitting  out  this  present 
life  for  your  transformation  from  what  you  are  to 
what  you  wish  to  be.  I  did  not  say  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  could  not  make  you,  and  make  you  behave 
like,  a  Christian  gentleman,  both  at  home  and 
abroad.  I  took  care  what  I  said.  I  only  said 
that  I  had  not  yet  made  your  acquaintance. 

Have  you  ever  read  that  completely  overlaid 
English  classic,  Paley's  Horce  Paulince?  In  that 
incomparable  specimen  of  reasoning  the  Archdeacon 
has  a  fine  expression  and  a  fine  passage  on  Paul's 
'accommodating  conduct.'  And  that  master  of 
the  pen  has  given  us  in  that  epithet  a  characteris- 
tically happy  description  of  the  Apostle.  For 
everybody  who  has  read  about  Paul  at  all,  knows 
this  about  him,  that  some  of  the  greatest  sufferings 
of  his  life  sprang  to  him  just  out  of  his  far  too 
nobly  accommodating  conduct.  Paul  cast  his 
pearls  before  swine.  Paul's  sweet  and  beautiful 
yieldingness  in  every  matter  that  touched  his  own 
opinions  or  his  own  practices,  taken  along  with  his 
iron  will  in  what  was  not  his  own ;  these  two 
things  must  be  taken  together  to  know  Paul. 
Luther,  that  evangelical  genius  almost  equal  to  Paul 
himself,  hits  the  whole  matter  here  in  a  way  that 
would  have  delighted  Paul.  '  If  two  goats  meet 
each  other  in  a  narrow  path  above  a  piece  of  water, 
what  do  they  do  ? '  asks  Luther.  '  They  cannot 
turn  back,  and  they  cannot  pass  each  other ;  there 
is  not  an  inch  of  spare  room.  If  they  were  to  butt 
at  each  other,  both  would  fall  into  the  water  below 
80 


AS  A  CONTROVERSIALIST 

and  would  be  drowned.  What  then  will  they  do, 
do  you  suppose  ?  What  would  you  do  ?  Well, 
Nature  has  taught  the  one  goat  to  lie  down  and 
let  the  other  pass  over  it,  and  then  they  both  get 
to  the  end  of  the  day  safe  and  sound.'  Now, 
Paul  was  always  meeting  goats  on  narrow  ledges 
of  rock  with  the  sea  below.  And  so  are  you,  and 
so  am  I.  And  God  ordains  to  you  and  to  me  our 
meeting  one  another  in  this  strait  gate  and  on 
that  narrow  way,  and  right  below  us  is  the 
bottomless  pit.  Will  you  lie  down  and  let  me 
pass  over  your  prostrate  body,  and  then  we  shall 
both  be  saved  ? 

'  Above  all  things  the  servant  of  the  Lord  must 
not  strive."  So  said  the  aged  Apostle  to  Timothy, 
doing  his  best  to  put  an  old  head  on  young 
shoulders.  And  I  suppose  every  old  minister  who 
has  learned  anything  in  the  school  of  life  would 
say  the  same  thing,  to  every  young  minister 
especially.  Do  not  debate,  said  the  greatest 
debater  of  his  day,  and  one  of  the  most  masterly 
debaters  in  all  literature.  On  no  account,  he 
said,  enter  into  any  dispute  with  any  one,  and 
especially  about  the  truths  of  salvation.  Give  to 
all  men  every  help  to  their  salvation,  but  that  of 
debating  with  them  about  it.  And,  according  to 
my  experience,  William  Law  is  wholly  right.  Far 
better  let  a  man  be  demonstrably  wrong  in  this 
and  that  opinion  of  his,  than  attempt  to  contradict 
and  debate  him  out  of  it.  You  cannot  do  it.  Far 
better  a  man  be  demonstrably  ignorant  in  this  and 
that  even  not  unimportant  matter,  than  that  he  be 
F  Si 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

angry  at  you,  and  resentful  at  you,  all  his  days,  as 
nine  out  of  every  ten  corrected  and  contradicted 
men  will  certainly  be.  You  will  never  set  a  man's 
opinion  right  if  you  begin  by  hurting  his  pride  and 
crossing  his  temper.  Cross  a  sinner  and  you  will 
have  a  devil,  said  Thomas  Shepard.  That  may  be 
a  little  too  strong,  but  few  men  are  angels  exactly 
for  some  time  after  they  are  crossed,  and  contra- 
dicted, and  corrected.  They  are  joined  to  their 
idol,  let  them  alone.  Oh,  but  you  say.  So-and-so 
will  not  leave  you  alone.  Well,  my  argument  is 
not  that,  but  this.  Let  you  him  alone.  '  They 
say.  What  do  they  say  ?  Let  them  say.'  Do 
not  you  even  say  so  much  as  Paul  said.  Do  not 
say  that  their  judgment  is  just.  Santa  Teresa  is 
not  one  of  the  ladies  of  our  Scottish  covenant,  but 
this  is  what  she  says  on  the  matter  in  hand : 
'  The  not  excusing  of  ourselves  is  a  perfect  quality, 
and  of  great  merit.  It  is  a  mark  of  the  deepest 
and  truest  humility  to  see  ourselves  condemned 
without  cause,  and  to  be  silent  under  it.  It  is  a 
very  noble  imitation  of  our  Lord.  What  about 
being  blamed  by  all  men,  if  only  we  stand  at  the 
last  blameless  before  Thee  ! ' 

'  Doing  nothing  by  prejudice  or  by  partiality,' 
says  the  Apostle,  still  insisting  on  this  same  matter. 
Now,  to  be  absolutely  free  of  prejudice  and 
partiality  is,  I  fear,  not  possible  to  any  one  of  us 
in  this  life.  But  we  must  both  learn,  and  labour, 
and  pray,  to  be  delivered  from  the  dominion  of 
those  wicked  tempers,  as  much  as  may  be.  This 
passage  is  five-and-twenty  centuries  old,  but  it 
82 


AS  A  CONTROVERSIALIST 

might  have  been  written  in  London  or  Edinburgh 
yesterday.  '  No  assurances,  no  pledges  of  either 
party,  could  gain  credit  with  the  other.  The 
most  reasonable  proposals,  coming  from  an  oppon- 
ent, were  received,  not  with  candour,  but  with 
suspicion.  No  artifice  was  reckoned  dishonourable 
by  which  a  point  could  be  carried.  Every  recom- 
mendation of  moderate  measures  was  reckoned 
either  a  mark  of  cowardice  or  of  insincerity.  He 
only  was  considered  a  completely  safe  man  whose 
violence  was  blind  and  boundless  ;  and  those  who 
endeavoured  to  steer  a  middle  course  were  spared 
by  neither  side.'  We  could  all  set  the  names  of 
living  men,  ay,  and  of  Christian  men  too,  over 
against  every  line  of  that  terrible  indictment.  But 
the  design  of  the  great  historian  in  publishing  that 
passage,  as  well  as  my  design  in  preaching  it,  is  to 
set  before  you  and  before  myself,  in  every  possible 
way,  the  mischief  and  the  shame  of  such  a  state  of 
things.  And  to  determine,  God  helping  us,  to 
purge  our  hearts  of  all  prejudice  and  partiality. 
The  best  political  and  literary  journal  ever  pub- 
lished in  this  country,  for  many  years  held  up  a 
statesman  of  the  last  generation  as  a  paragon  of 
every  public  virtue  and  every  personal  grace.  All 
that  was  noble,  all  that  was  grand  and  stately,  all 
that  was  truly  Christian,  met  in  that  minister  of 
the  Crown.  But  a  crisis  came  when  that  hitherto 
peerless  statesman  saw  it  to  be  his  duty  to  take  a 
certain  step  in  public  life.  And  from  that  fatal 
day,  nothing  he  ever  said  or  did  was  right.  Every- 
thing in  him,  and  everything  in  his  party,  was  as 

83 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

bad  as  bad  could  be.  All  who  spoke  against  him 
in  Parliament,  or  on  the  platform,  or  in  the  press, 
were  so  many  Burkes  come  back  to  life.  Eloquent, 
statesmanlike,  unanswerable,  were  but  three  of  the 
eulogistic  epithets  we  read  in  every  article.  While, 
if  any  writer  or  speaker  had  a  single  word  to  say 
for  that  fallen  idol  and  for  his  policy,  they  were 
either  rogues  or  fools.  It  was  a  weekly  lesson. 
And  not  a  few  of  us  learned  the  lesson.  Indeed 
it  was  written  so  large  that  no  one  could  miss 
learning  it.  It  was  as  if  it  had  been  printed  at 
the  head  of  every  page, — All  you  who  would  see 
prejudice  and  partiality,  read  what  is  written 
below.  Speaking  on  this  whole  matter  for  myself, 
I  owe  a  great  debt  to  the  conductors  of  that 
journal,  and  to  Butler,  and  to  Bengel.  To  Butler 
every  day  for  that  great  saying  of  his — '  Let  us 
remember  that  we  differ  as  much  from  other  men 
as  they  differ  from  us.'  And  to  Bengel  for  this 
— non  sine  scientia,  necessitate,  amove :  enter  upon 
no  controversy  without  knowledge,  nor  without 
necessity,  nor  without  love. 


84 


VIII 
PAUL  AS  A   MAN   OF   PRAYER 

INTELLECTUALLY  as  well  as  spiritually,  as 
a  theologian  as  well  as  a  saint,  Paul  is  at  his 
very  best  in  his  prayers.  The  full  majesty  of 
the  Apostle'*s  magnificent  mind  is  revealed  to  us 
nowhere  as  in  his  prayers.  After  Paul  has  carried 
his  most  believing  and  his  most  adoring  readers  as 
high  as  they  are  able  to  rise,  Paul  himself  still  rises 
higher  and  higher  in  his  prayers.  Paul  leaves  the 
most  seraphic  of  saints  far  below  him  as  he  soars 
away  up  into  the  third  heaven  of  rapture,  and 
revelation,  and  adoration.  Paul  is  caught  up  so  high 
into  paradise  in  his  prayers,  that  when  he  returns 
back  into  the  body,  he  is  not  able  to  tell  the  half 
of  the  things  that  he  has  seen  and  heard  in  the 
presence  of  God.  A  great  theologian,  who  is  also 
a  great  devotional  writer,  has  warned  his  readers 
against  the  dangers  of  an  untheological  devotion. 
Now,  Paul's  great  prayers  and  great  praises  are  the 
best  examples  possible  of  a  devotion  that  is 
theological  and  Christological  to  the  core.  In  the 
Ephesians  and  the  Colossians  especially,  Paul's 
adoration  flames  up  to  heaven  like  the  ascending 
incense  of  a  great  altar-fire.      Paul's  adorations  in 

85 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

those  two  superb  epistles  especially,  reveal  to  us, 
as  nothing  else  of  PauPs  composition  reveals  to  us, 
the  full  intellectual  strength,  and  the  full  spiritual 
splendour,  of  PauPs  sanctified  understanding.  And 
then  those  unapproached  adorations  of  his  prove 
this  also,  that  the  Apostle''s  wonderful  mind  has 
found  its  predestined  sphere  and  its  sufficient 
scope  in  New  Testament  Theology,  and  especially 
in  New  Testament  Christology.  There  may  have 
been  one  or  two  as  great  intellects  as  PauPs  in 
some  of  the  surrounding  dispensations  of  Pagan- 
ism ;  but  then  those  greatly  gifted  men  had  not 
PauPs  privileges,  opportunities,  and  outlets.  God 
did  not  reveal  His  Son  in  those  men.  And  thus 
it  was  that  their  fine  minds  never  had  full  justice 
done  to  them  in  this  life.  But  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  in  Him  ascended  and  glorified,  PauPs  profound 
mind  had  a  boundless  scope  and  a  boundless  satis- 
faction. The  truth  is,  beyond  the  best  adorations 
and  doxologies  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  the  soul  of 
man  will  never  rise  on  this  side  the  adorations  and 
doxologies  of  the  Beatific  Vision  itself. 

Now  my  brethren,  there  is  a  lesson  here  of  the 
very  first  importance  and  the  very  first  fruitfulness 
to  you  and  to  me.  And  that  lesson  is  this.  Let 
us  put  our  very  profoundest  Christology  into  our 
prayers.  One  reason  why  so  many  of  our  prayers, 
both  in  public  and  in  private,  are  so  dry,  and  so 
cold,  and  so  full  of  repetition,  is  just  because 
there  is  so  little  Christology  in  them  ;  so  little 
New  Testament  Scripture,  that  is.  I  do  not  mean 
that  there  is  too  little  New  Testament  language 
86 


AS  A  MAN  OF  PRAYER 

in  our  prayers;  but  there  is  too  little  both  Old 
and  New  Testament  language  meditated  on,  under- 
stood, believed,  realised,  and  felt.  There  is  too 
little  Scripture  substance.  Scripture  strength.  Scrip- 
ture depth,  and  Scripture  height,  in  our  prayers. 
It  was  this  that  led  Dr.  Thomas  Goodwin,  by  far 
the  princeliest  preacher  of  the  Puritan  pulpit,  to 
counsel  the  divinity  students  of  Oxford  to  Hhicken' 
both  their  devotions  to  God,  and  their  exhorta- 
tions to  their  people,  with  apostolic  doctrine. 
Now,  even  if  you  possess  no  students'  books  of 
apostolic  doctrine,  you  possess  the  very  Apostle 
himself  in  his  Epistles,  and  I  defy  you  to  read  his 
Epistles  with  the  understanding  and  the  heart, 
and  not  to  be  swept  away,  like  their  writer,  into 
the  most  ecstatic  and  rapturous  adoration.  You 
will  never  be  able  to  read  in  that  way  the  doctrinal 
parts  of  the  Romans,  and  the  Ephesians,  and  the 
Colossians,  or,  indeed,  any  of  Paul's  Epistles,  with- 
out being,  now  completely  melted  and  broken,  and 
now  completely  caught  up  into  paradise,  till  you 
are  a  second  Paul  yourself.  If  your  prayers 
hitherto  have  been  a  weariness  to  yourself,  and 
to  all  men  who  have  had  to  do  with  you,  and  to 
the  Hearer  of  prayer  Himself,  get  PauPs  great 
Epistles  well  down  into  your  understanding,  and 
into  your  imagination,  and  into  your  heart  hence- 
forth, and  out  of  your  heart,  and  out  of  your 
mouth,  there  will  flame  up  doxologies  and  adora- 
tions as  seraphic  and  as  acceptable  as  PauPs 
own  doxologies  and  adorations  in  his  greatest 
Epistles. 

87 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

The  absolute  unceasingness  also  of  PauPs  prayers 
immensely  impresses  us.  In  his  own  well-known 
words  about  himself  Paul  was  <  praying  always 
with  all  prayer  and  supplication  in  the  spirit.' 
Now  that,  read  literally,  may  well  look  to  us  like 
the  language  of  a  man  gone  into  absolute  exagger- 
ation and  extravagance  about  prayer.  But  it  is 
not  so.  All  that  was  literally  true  of  Paul.  Paul 
confessed  sin  for  himself,  and  he  interceded  for 
other  men ;  he  adored  also  and  broke  out  into 
doxologies,  literally  without  ceasing.  Do  you  ever 
employ  an  horology  in  your  devotional  life  ?  You 
will  find  an  excellent  specimen  of  that  apparatus 
and  assistance  to  unceasing  prayer  on  page  155  of 
Oliphant's  edition  of  Andrewes's  Private  Devotions. 
Now  just  as  if  he  had  an  horological  tablet  like 
that  page  hung  up,  now  on  his  workshop-wall,  and 
now  on  his  prison-wall,  Paul  prayed  night  and 
day,  and  all  the  hours  of  every  night  and  of  every 
day,  without  ceasing.  Like  the  genuine  horologist 
he  was,  Paul  introduced  every  day  of  his  life  with 
praise  and  prayer.  When  I  awake  I  am  still  with 
thee  !  he  exclaimed  as  he  awoke.  He  had  fallen 
asleep  last  night  full  of  praise  and  prayer,  and  in  the 
morning  he  just  began  again  where  he  had  left  off 
last  night.  As  Augustine  says,  Paul  brought  the 
word  to  the  water-bason  every  morning  and  every 
night  and  made  it  a  sacrament.  Wash  me,  he 
said,  and  I  shall  be  whiter  than  snow.  I  put  on 
His  righteousness,  he  went  on,  and  it  clothed  me, 
it  was  to  me  for  a  robe  and  for  a  diadem.  Thy 
Word — he  remembered  this  also  out  of  Job  as  he 
88 


AS  A  MAN  OF  PRAYER 

broke  his  morning  fast — is  more  to  me  than  my 
necessary  food.  And  then  as  the  day  went  on, 
every  instrument  he  took  into  his  hands,  and  every 
product  he  put  out  of  his  hands,  was  oratorical  to 
Paul.  Like  his  divine  Master,  everything  was  to 
Paul  another  speaking  parable  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  Everything  to  Paul  was  another  call  to 
prayer  and  praise.  Till,  literally,  and  without  any 
exaggeration  or  hyperbole  whatsoever,  Paul  prayed 
and  sang  praises  unceasingly.  Until  you  are  as  old 
as  Paul  you  will  have  no  idea  what  a  large  liberty, 
what  a  rich  variety,  what  an  inexhaustible  resource, 
and  what  a  full  range  and  reward,  there  is  in 
prayer.  What  an  outlet  for  your  largest  mind, 
and  for  your  deepest  heart,  and  for  your  richest 
and  ripest  individuality.  Instead  of  the  life  of 
prayer  being  a  monotony  and  a  weariness,  as  we 
think  it,  there  is  simply  no  exercise  of  the  body, 
and  no  operation  of  the  mind,  and  no  affection  of 
the  heart,  for  one  moment  to  compare  with  prayer, 
for  interest,  and  for  variety,  and  for  freshness,  and 
for  elasticity,  and  for  all  manner  of  intellectual 
and  spiritual  outlet  and  reward.  I  sometimes 
speak  to  you  about  Bishop  Andrewes,  and  I  do  so 
because  his  Private  Devotions  is  by  far  the  best  book 
of  that  kind  in  all  the  world.  As  also  because  it 
is  never  out  of  my  own  hand ;  and,  naturally,  I 
would  like  it  never  to  be  out  of  your  hand  either. 
And  all  that  because  Andrewes  is  a  man  after  PauFs 
own  heart,  for  the  freshness,  and  for  the  fulness, 
and  for  the  richness  of  his  prayers.  Andrewes  has 
a  Meditation  for  every  day  of  the  week,  and  an 

89 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

Adoration,  and  a  Confession  of  faith,  and  a  Con- 
fession of  sin,  and  a  Supplication,  and  an  Inter- 
cession, and  a  Thanksgiving,  with  no  end  of  Acts 
of  Commendation,  Acts  of  Deprecation,  Acts  of 
Pleading,  and  such  like.  And  then  he  has  an 
Horology,  composed  exclusively  out  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, for  every  hour  of  the  day  and  the  night. 
And  much  more  of  the  same  kind  besides.  What 
a  rich,  fruitful,  nobly  intellectual,  and  nobly 
spiritual,  life  Paul  secured  to  himself,  just  by  his 
habits  and  his  hours  of  meditation  and  prayer. 
As  Andrevves  also  secured  in  his  measure.  And 
many  more  who  have  given  themselves  to  prayer 
as  Paul  and  Andrewes  gave  themselves.  And 
just  because,  with  all  that,  we  will  not  learn  to 
pray,  what  a  wilderness  we  all  make  this  life  to 
be  to  ourselves,  till  we  lie  down  weary  of  it,  and 
die  and  are  buried  in  it.  Lord,  teach  us  to  pray  ! 
Now,  just  as  Paul  prayed  always  and  without 
ceasing,  so  will  we,  if  we  take  Paul  for  our  master 
in  divinity  and  in  devotion ;  and  if,  like  Paul,  we 
go  on,  in  all  that,  to  make  Jesus  Christ  our 
continual  atonement  for  our  sins,  and  our  con- 
tinual sanctification  from  our  sinfulness.  If  we 
know  sin  at  all  aright,  and  Christ  at  all  aright, 
then  this  will  be  the  proof  that  we  do  so, — we 
will  pray  for  pardon  and  for  a  holy  heart,  literally, 
without  ceasing.  How  can  any  man  cease,  for  a 
single  moment,  from  repentance  and  prayer  who 
has  a  heart  full  of  sin  in  his  bosom,  and  that 
heart  beating  out  its  sinfulness  into  his  body  and 
into  his  mind  every  moment  of  the  day  and  the 
90 


AS  A  MAN  OF  PRAYER 

night  ?  That  man  will  never  cease  from  prayer 
till  he  has  ceased  from  sin,  any  more  than  Paul 
ceased.  For,  with  that  unceasingly  sinful  heart 
within  him,  there  are  so  many  men,  and  so  many 
things,  all  around  him,  constantly  exasperating  his 
heart.  You  must  all  know  that  about  yourselves. 
You  are  so  beset  with  men  whom  you  cannot  meet 
in  the  street,  or  hear  or  see  their  very  names,  but 
you  must  surely,  on  the  spot,  flee  to  Christ  to 
forgive,  and  heal,  and  hide  you.  Those  men  may 
never  have  hurt  a  hair  of  your  head ;  they  will 
never  suspect  what  a  temptation  they  are  to  you  ; 
but  such  is  the  rooted  and  ineradicable  malice  of 
your  heart  towards  them,  that,  as  long  as  you  and 
they  live  in  this  world,  you  will  have  to  pray  for 
yourself  and  for  them  without  ceasing.  When 
you  cease  to  pray  for  those  men,  you,  that 
moment,  begin  again  to  sin  against  them  ;  and 
that  continually  drives  you  back  to  the  blood  of 
Christ  both  for  yourselves  and  for  them.  You 
will  never  acquit  Paul  of  having  gone  extravagant, 
and  of  being  beside  himself  about  prayer,  till  you 
equal  and  exceed  him  in  unceasing  prayer,  both 
for  yourselves  and  for  all  men.  And  you  will  so 
exceed  him  when  you  take  your  exceedingly  sinful 
heart  in  your  hand,  and  hold  it  in  your  hand, 
watching  its  motions  of  sin,  and  its  need  of 
redemption,  all  the  day.  If  it  were  possible,  and, 
why,  in  the  name  of  God,  and  of  your  immortal 
soul,  should  you  not  make  it  possible  ?  If  it 
were  possible,  I  say,  to  take  your  private  diary 
to-morrow,  and  to  make  a  cross  on  the  page  for 

91 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

every  time  you  have  to  flee  from  your  own  heart 
to  the  blood  of  Christ ;  and  then  to  count  up  the 
number  of  the  crosses  at  the  end  of  the  day, — if 
you  did  that,  '  always,'  and  '  unceasing,"  would  be 
the  weakest  words  you  could  use  about  your  sin 
and  your  repentance  to-morrow  night.  On  the 
midday  street  to-morrow  you  would  stop  to  make 
those  sad  marks  in  your  book,  at  your  meals  you 
would  make  them,  at  business,  at  calls,  and  in 
conversation  with  your  wisest,  and  best,  and  least 
sin-provoking,  friends.  At  your  work,  at  your 
family  worship,  in  your  pew  on  Sabbath,  at  the 
Lord"'s  table  itself;  and,  if  you  were  a  minister, 
in  your  very  pulpit.  '  Always  '  and  '  unceasing.' 
Paul  made  no  exception,  and  found  no  discharge 
from  that  war.  And  neither  will  you,  till  you 
see  Paul,  and  share  his  place  with  him,  so  close  to 
his  and  your  Master's  feet,  that  sin  will  not  reach 
you.  An  horology  for  one  day  like  that  would 
make  you  at  night  read  both  Paul's  doctrines  and 
his  doxologies  as  you  never  read  them  before. 

And  I  will  be  bold,  and  particular,  and  per- 
sonal, at  this  point,  and  will  say  one  thing  of  the 
foremost  importance  to  you  and  to  myself, — we 
must  imitate  Paul  in  this,  and  take  far  more  time 
to  prayer  than  we  have  ever  yet  taken.  I  am  as 
certain  as  I  am  standing  here,  that  the  secret  of 
much  mischief  to  our  own  souls,  and  to  the  souls 
of  others,  lies  in  the  way  that  we  stint,  and  starve, 
and  scamp  our  prayers,  by  hurrying  over  them. 
Prayer  worth  calling  prayer :  prayer  that  God  will 
call  true  prayer  and  will  treat  as  true  prayer,  takes 
92 


AS  A  MAN  OF  PRAYER 

far  more  time,  by  the  clock,  than  one  man  in  a 
thousand  thinks.  After  all  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
has  done  to  make  true  prayer  independent  of 
times,  and  of  places,  and  of  all  kinds  of  instru- 
ments and  assistances, — as  long  as  we  remain  in 
this  unspiritual  and  undevotional  world,  we  shall 
not  succeed,  to  be  called  success,  in  prayer,  with- 
out time,  and  times,  and  places,  and  other 
assistances  in  prayer.  Take  good  care  that  you 
are  not  spiritual  overmuch  in  the  matter  of 
prayer.  Take  good  care  lest  you  take  your 
salvation  far  too  softly,  and  far  too  cheaply.  If 
you  find  your  life  of  prayer  to  be  always  so  short, 
and  so  easy,  and  so  spiritual,  as  to  be  without  cost 
and  strain  and  sweat  to  you,  you  may  depend 
upon  it,  you  are  not  yet  begun  to  pray.  As  sure 
as  you  sit  there,  and  I  stand  here,  it  is  just  in 
this  matter  of  time  in  prayer  that  so  many  of  us 
are  making  shipwreck  of  our  own  souls,  and  of  the 
souls  of  others.  Were  some  of  us  shut  up  in 
prison  like  Paul,  I  believe  we  have  grace  enough 
to  become  in  that  sequestered  life  men  of  great 
and  prevailing  prayer.  And,  perhaps,  when  we 
are  sufficiently  old  and  set  free  from  business,  and 
are  sick  tired  of  spending  our  late  nights  eating 
and  drinking  and  talking :  when  both  the  church 
and  the  world  are  sick  tired  of  us  and  leave  us 
alone  and  forget  us,  we,  yet,  short  of  Blackness  or 
the  Bass-rock,  may  find  time  for  prayer,  and  may 
get  back  the  years  of  prayer  those  canker-worms 
have  eaten. 

Ajid  now  to  come  to  the  last  and  the  best  kind 

93 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

of  all  prayer,  and  the  crown  and  the  finish  of  all 
PauFs  prayers,  intercessory  prayer,  namely.  We 
have  little  else  indeed  of  the  prayer-kind  drawn 
out  into  any  length  from  PauPs  pen  but  prayer 
for  other  people.  If  you  were  to  collect  together 
and  tabulate  by  themselves  all  PauPs  prayers  of 
all  kinds,  as  Dr.  Pope  has  done  in  his  golden  book, 
you  would  find  that  they  all  come  in  under  the 
head  of  salutations,  or  invocations,  or  benedictions : 
intercession,  in  short,  of  one  kind  or  other;  with, 
now  and  then,  such  a  burst  of  doxology  as  cannot 
be  classified  except  by  itself.  What  a  quiet  con- 
science Paul  must  have  had,  and  what  a  happy 
heart,  in  this  matter  of  intercessory  prayer,  com- 
pared with  the  most  of  us.  For,  how  many 
people,  first  and  last,  have  asked  us  to  pray  to  God 
for  them,  whom  we  have  clean  forgot.  How  many 
children,  sick  people,  heart-broken  people,  has 
God  laid  on  our  hands,  and  we  have  never  once 
brought  them  to  His  mercy- seat.  How  happy 
was  Paul,  and  how  happy  were  those  churches 
who  had  Paul  for  their  pastor.  How  happy  to 
have  been  his  fellow-elder  in  Ephesus,  his  physician, 
his  son  in  the  Gospel.  Speaking  of  Paul's 
physician,  I  shall  close  with  a  few  lines  on  this 
subject,  out  of  the  private  papers  of  Sir  Thomas 
Browne,  a  man  of  prayer,  not  unworthy  to  be 
named  with  the  Apostle  himself :  « To  pray  in  all 
places  where  quietness  inviteth ;  in  any  house, 
highway,  or  street ;  and  to  know  no  street  in  this 
city  that  may  not  witness  that  I  have  not  forgotten 
God  and  my  Saviour  in  it :     and  that  no  parish 

94 


AS  A  MAN  OF  PRAYER 

or  town  where  I  have  been  may  not  say  the  like. 
To  take  occasion  of  praying  upon  the  sight  of  any 
church  which  I  see,  or  pass  by,  as  I  ride  about. 
To  pray  daily  and  particularly  for  my  sick  patients, 
and  for  all  sick  people  under  whose  care  soever. 
And,  at  the  entrance  into  the  house  of  the  sick  to 
say, — the  peace  and  the  mercy  of  God  be  on  this 
house.  After  a  sermon  to  make  a  prayer  and 
desire  a  blessing,  and  to  pray  for  the  minister. 
Upon  the  sight  of  beautiful  persons  to  bless  God 
for  His  creatures  ;  to  pray  for  the  beauty  of  their 
souls,  and  that  He  would  enrich  them  with  inward 
grace  to  be  answerable  to  the  outward.  Upon 
sight  of  deformed  persons,  to  pray  Him  to  send 
them  inward  graces,  and  to  enrich  their  souls,  and 
give  them  the  beauty  of  the  resurrection.'  Had 
Sir  Thomas  Browne  lived  in  PauFs  day  the  pray- 
ing Apostle  would  have  ranked  him  with  Luke 
and  would  have  called  them  his  two  beloved 
physicians. 

Brethren,  pray  for  me,  said  Paul.      Pray  for  my 
soul,  said  Arthur  also, — 

Pray  for  my  soul.     More  things  are  wroug-lit  by  prayer 

Than  this  world  dreams  of.     Wherefore  let  thy  voice 

Rise  like  a  fountain  for  me  night  and  day. 

For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats 

That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain. 

If,  knowing  God^  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer 

Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend  ? 

For  so  the  whole  round  earth  is,  every  way, 

Bound  by  gold  chains,  about  the  feet  of  God. 

But  that  all-important  matter  of  time  comes  back 

95 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

upon  me,  and  will  not  let  me  go.  Take  more  time 
to  prayer,  my  brethren.  Take  one  hour  out  of 
every  twenty-four.  Or,  if  you  cannot  spare  an  hour, 
take  half  an  hour  ;  or,  if  you  would  not  know  what 
to  do  or  say  for  half  an  hour,  take  a  quarter  of 
an  hour.  Take  from  8  to  9  every  night,  or  from 
9  to  10,  or  from  10  to  11,  or  some  part  of  that. 
And,  if  you  cannot  fill  up  the  time  out  of  your 
own  heart,  take  David  and  Paul  and  Andrewes  to 
assist  you,  and  to  show  you  how  to  pray  in  secret ; 
for  it  is  a  rare,  and  a  difficult,  but  an  absolutely 
indispensable,  art. 


IX 

PAUL  AS  A  BELIEVING  MAN 

THE  extraordinary  concentration  of  PauPs 
faith  upon  the  Cross  of  Christ  is  by  far 
the  most  arresting  and  impressive  thing  about 
Paul.  It  is  in  the  way  that  Paul  lets  go  every- 
thing else  in  order  that  he  may  rivet  his  faith  upon 
the  Cross  of  Christ  alone — it  is  this  that  makes 
Paul  our  model  and  our  master  in  this  whole 
matter  of  the  Cross  of  Christ.  For  the  sake  of  the 
Cross  of  Christ  Paul  denies  himself  daily  in  many 
other  of  the  great  things  of  Christ.  What  splendid 
visions  of  Christ  there  are  opened  up  in  PauPs 
magnificent  Christology !  What  captivating  and 
enthralling  glimpses  he  gives  us  sometimes  into 
the  third  heavens !  But  we  are  immediately 
summoned  back  from  all  that  to  be  crucified  with 
Christ.  There  is  a  time  and  there  is  a  season  for 
everything,  says  Paul.  And  I  am  determined,  he 
says,  that  so  far  as  I  am  concerned  you  shall  know 
nothing  in  this  life  at  any  rate,  save  Jesus  Christ, 
and  Him  crucified.  A  great  Pauline  divine,  the 
greatest  indeed  that  I  know,  was  wont  to  say  that 
there  are  many  things  in  our  Lord  far  more 
wonderful  and  far  more  glorious  than  even   His 

G  97 


The  apostle  paul 

Cross.  But  Paul  never  says  that.  Or  if  he  is 
ever  carried  away  to  say  that,  he  instantly  corrects 
himself  and  says,  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory 
save  in  the  Cross  of  Christ.  Like  the  dove  to  its 
window,  like  the  bird  to  its  mountain,  even  after 
he  has  been  caught  up  into  the  third  heavens, 
Paul  hastens  back  to  the  Cross  of  Christ.  Once 
Paul  is  for  ever  with  the  Lord ;  once  he  is  sat 
down  finally  with  Christ  in  His  kingdom  ;  once  he 
is  at  home  in  heaven,  and  not  merely  there  on  a 
short  visit ;  once  he  is  completely  habituated  to, 
and  for  ever  secure  in,  glory,  Paul  will  then, 
no  doubt,  have  time  and  detachment  to  give  to 
other  things  in  Christ  besides  His  Cross.  And 
yet,  I  am  not  sure.  At  any  rate,  so  long  as  Paul 
is  in  the  flesh ;  so  long  as  he  is  still  carnal  and 
sold  under  sin  ;  so  long  as  that  messenger  of  Satan 
is  still  buffeting  him,  the  Cross  of  Christ  with  its 
sin-atoning  blood  is  the  glory  that  excels  all  else 
in  Christ  to  Paul.  What  grapples  my  own  heart 
to  Paul  above  all  else  is  just  the  unparalleled 
concentration  of  Paul's  experience,  and  of  Paul's 
faith,  and  of  Paul's  preaching,  upon  the  Cross  of 
Christ. 

Another  thing  in  PauFs  faith  is  the  extraordin- 
ary way  in  which  he  identifies  himself  with  Christ 
when  Christ  is  upon  His  Cross.  Christ  and  Paul 
become  one  sacrifice  for  sin  on  the  Cross.  Christ 
and  Paul  combine  and  coalesce  and  are  united 
into  one  dying  sinner  on  the  accursed  tree.  It 
takes  both  Paul  and  Christ  taken  together  to 
make  up  Christ  crucified.      Christ  is  apprehended, 

98 


AS  A  BELIEVING  MAN 

is  accused,  is  condemned,  and  is  crucified  before 
God  for  Paul  ;  and,  then,  Paul  is  crucified  before 
God  in,  and  along  with,  Christ.  It  is  this  tran- 
scendent identification  of  Christ  with  Paul  and  of 
Paul  with  Christ  that  the  Apostle  so  labours,  in 
the  strength  and  in  the  style  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
to  set  forth  to  us  in  his  glorious  doctrines  of  the 
suretyship  and  substitution  of  Christ,  the  imputa- 
tion of  Paul's  guilt  and  pollution  to  Christ,  and 
then  the  imputation  of  Christ's  righteousness  and 
the  impartation  of  Christ's  spirit  to  Paul.  These 
great  evangelical  doctrines  of  Paul  may  be  so 
divine  and  so  deep  that  your  heart  does  not  yet 
respond  to  them.  Paul's  tremendously  strong 
words  about  Christ  and  His  Cross  may  stagger 
you,  but  that  is  because  the  law  of  God  has  not 
yet  entered  your  heart.  When  it  does,  and  when, 
after  that,  God  reveals  His  Son  in  you,  you  will 
then  become  as  Pauline  in  your  theology  and  in 
its  great  language  as  Luther  became  himself.  I 
can  very  well  believe  that  Paul's  so  original,  so 
powerful,  and  so  cross-concentrated  faith,  staggers 
and  angers  some  of  you.  It  does  not  stagger  and 
anger  any  of  you  half  so  much  as  at  one  time  it 
both  staggered  and  positively  exasperated  Paul 
himself.  But  now,  he  says,  I  am  crucified  with 
Christ ;  with  Christ  who  loved  me,  and  gave  Him- 
self for  me.  And  once  Paul's  faith  is  in  this  way 
concentrated  on  the  Cross  of  Christ :  and  once 
Paul  is  so  identified  with  Christ  crucified  ;  every- 
thing in  Paul's  experience — past,  present,  and  yet 
to  come — all  that  only  roots  the  deeper  and  the 

99 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

stronger  Paul's  faith  in  the  Cross  of  Christ.  1 
often  recall  the  evidence  that  Admiral  Dougall 
gave  at  the  Tay  Bridge  inquiry  as  to  the  direction 
and  the  force  of  the  winds  that  blow  down  the 
valley  of  the  Tay.  '  Trees  are  not  so  well  pre- 
pared to  resist  pressure  from  unusual  quarters,' 
said  that  observant  witness.  '  A  tree  spreads  out 
its  roots  in  the  direction  of  the  prevailing  wind.' 
Now  Paul's  faith  was  like  one  of  the  Admiral's 
wind-facing  trees.  For  Paul's  faith  continually 
spread  out  its  roots  in  the  direction  of  the  coming 
storm.  Only,  the  wind  that  compelled  Paul's  faith 
to  spread  out  its  roots  around  the  Cross  of  Christ 
blew  down  from  no  range  of  earthly  mountains. 
It  was  the  overwhelming  wind  of  God's  wrath  that 
rose  with  such  fury  upon  Paul's  conscience  out  of 
Paul's  past  life.  The  blasts  of  divine  wrath  that 
blew  off  the  bleak  sides  of  Sinai  struck  with  such 
shocks  against  Paul's  faith  in  Christ,  that,  like  the 
trees  on  the  wind-swept  sides  of  the  Tay,  it  be- 
came just  by  reason  of  that  wind  so  rooted  and 
grounded  in  Christ  crucified,  that  however  the 
rain  might  descend,  and  the  floods  come,  and  the 
winds  blow  and  beat  upon  Paul's  faith,  it  fell  not, 
for  it  had  struck  its  roots,  with  every  new  storm, 
deeper  and  deeper  into  the  Cross  of  Christ. 

Down  suddenly  out  of  the  dark  mountains  of 
Paul's  past  life  of  sin,  the  most  terrible  tempests 
would,  to  the  very  end  of  his  days,  burst  upon  Paul. 
You  must  not  idolise  Paul.  You  must  not  totally 
misread  and  persistently  misunderstand  Paul,  as  if 
Paul  had  not  been  a  man  of  like  passions  with 
100 


AS  A  BELIEVING  MAN 

yourselves.  Paul  was  a  far  better  believer  than 
you  or  I  are.  But  as  to  sin  there  is  no  differ- 
ence. And  the  very  greatness  of  PauPs  faith  ;  the 
very  unparalleled  concentration  and  identifying 
power  of  his  faith  ;  all  that  only  made  the  sudden 
blasts  that  struck  at  his  faith  all  the  more  terrible 
to  bear.  Oh,  yes  !  you  may  depend  upon  it  Paul 
had  a  thousand  things  behind  him  that  swept 
down  guilt  and  shame  and  sorrow  upon  his  head 
to  the  day  of  his  death.  The  men  and  the  women 
and  the  children  he  had  haled  to  prison  ;  the  holy 
homes  he  had  desolated  with  his  temple  hordes ; 
the  martyrdoms  he  had  instigated,  the  blood  of 
which  would  never  in  this  world  be  washed  off  his 
hands ;  in  these,  and  in  a  thousand  other  things, 
Paul  was  a  child  of  wrath  even  as  others.  And 
that  wrath  of  God  would  awaken  in  his  conscience, 
and  would  assault  his  faith,  just  as  that  same 
wrath  of  God  assaults  your  faith  and  mine  every 
day  we  live  :  if,  that  is  to  say,  we  live  at  all.  No, 
there  is  no  difference.  The  only  difference  is 
that  Paul  always  met  that  rising  wrath  with  a 
faith  in  Christ  crucified  that  has  never  been 
equalled.  '  I,  through  the  law,'  he  said,  or  tried 
to  say,  every  time  the  law  clutched  at  him  as  its 
prisoner — '  I  through  the  law  am  dead  to  the 
law.  For  I  am  crucified  with  Christ.'  When 
the  two  thieves  died  on  their  two  crosses  on 
Calvary,  ay  and  even  after  their  dead  bodies 
were  burned  to  ashes  in  Gehenna,  there  would  still 
come  up  to  the  courts  of  justice  in  Jerusalem,  com- 
plaints and  accusations  against    those  two  male- 

lOI 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

factors  from  all  parts  of  the  land.  '  He  stole  my 
ox.'  '  He  robbed  my  house."*  '  He  burned  down 
my  barn."'  '  He  murdered  my  son."  But  the  judge 
would  say  to  all  such  too-late  accusations  that  the 
murderer  was  dead  already.  '  He  has  been  cruci- 
fied already.  He  is  beyond  your  accusations  and 
my  jurisdiction  both.  He  has  paid  already  with 
his  life  for  all  his  deeds  of  robbery  and  of  blood. 
His  death  has  for  ever  blotted  out  all  that  can 
ever  be  spoken  or  written  against  him."*  And  so 
it  was  with  Paul.  All  his  persecutions,  and  all 
his  blasphemies,  with  all  else  of  every  evil  kind 
that  could  come  up  out  of  his  past  life, — it  would  all 
find  Paul  already  a  dead  man.  Paul  is  crucified. 
Paul  has  given  up  the  ghost.  Paul  is  for  ever 
done  with  accusers  and  judges  both  :  come  up 
what  will,  leap  into  the  light  what  will,  it  is  all 
too  late.  A  dead  man  is  not  easily  put  to  shame, 
and  no  jailer  carries  a  corpse  to  prison.  Nay, 
PauPs  case  is  far  better  than  even  that  of  the  two 
death-justified  thieves.  For,  in  Paul's  case,  two 
men  are  dead  for  one  man's  transgressions.  And 
not  two  mere  men,  but  one  of  them  the  very  Son 
of  God  Himself.  Truly  the  law  is  magnified  and 
made  honourable  in  Paul's  case  !  Ten  thousand 
times  more  honourable  than  if  it  had  never  been 
broken,  since  the  Divine  Lawgiver  Himself  has 
satisfied  the  broken  law,  and  has  Himself  been 
crucified  for  Paul's  transgressions. 

But  Paul's  peculiar  and  arresting  form  of  speech 
in  the  text  carries  in  it  the  secret  of  a  great  victory 
and  a  great  peace.     For  mark  well,  what  exactly 
102 


AS  A  BELIEVING  MAN 

Paul  says.  Paul  does  not  say  that  he  once  was,  or 
that  he  had  at  one  time  been,  crucified  with  Christ, 
but  that  he  is,  at  present,  so  crucified.  That  is  as 
much  as  to  say  that  as  long  as  Paul  has  any  sin 
left  so  long  will  Christ  be  crucified.  Not  only  is 
Paul's  past  sin  all  collected  up  and  laid  on  Christ 
crucified  ;  but  almost  more,  all  Paul's  present  sin- 
fulness comes  up  upon  his  conscience  only  to  find 
Paul  dead  to  his  conscience,  and  to  his  sinfulness 
too,  so  truly  and  so  completely  is  he  crucified 
with  Christ.  It  is  impossible  properly,  or  even 
with  safety,  to  describe  to  a  whole  congregation 
PauFs  experience.  But  those  who  have  this  blessed 
experience  in  themselves  do  not  need  it  to  be 
described  to  them,  and  their  own  broken  hearts 
and  holy  lives  are  the  best  proof  of  its  safety.  I 
will  attempt  to  describe  to  some  of  you  what 
your  life  is,  and  the  description  will  somewhat 
comfort  and  assure  you  concerning  it.  Your  heart 
beats  up  its  secret  sinfulness  with  every  pulse,  so 
much  so,  that  you  would  choke  and  consume  and 
die  with  the  guilt  and  the  pollution  of  your  heart, 
unless  you  were  dead  already.  As  it  is,  though 
nobody  will  believe  it,  or  make  sense  of  how  it  can 
so  be,  your  unspeakable  sinfulness  never  gets  the 
length  even  of  darkening  your  mind  or  imprisoning 
your  conscience.  And  that  is  because  your  mind 
and  your  conscience  are  both  in  the  keeping  of 
Christ  crucified.  As  Luther's  conscience  was. 
'  The  law  is  not  the  lord  of  my  conscience,'  pro- 
tested that  Paul-like,  that  lion-like,  believer. 
'  Jesus   Christ  is  Almighty  God,  and   He  is  the 

103 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

Lord  of  my  conscience.  He  is  the  Lord  of  the  law 
also,  both  unbroken,  broken,  and  repaired,  and  He 
keeps  the  law  out  of  my  conscience  by  keeping  my 
conscience  continually  sprinkled  with  His  own 
peace-speaking  blood.'  In  Paul's  words  again, 
the  true  believer  is  '  dead,'  both  to  the  law,  and 
to  the  sin  and  the  guilt  of  his  own  corruption.  A 
true  believer's  corruption  of  heart  comes  up  into 
his  consciousness  not  in  order  to  produce  there  a 
bad  conscience,  but  ip  order  to  find  the  believer 
crucified  already  for  all  that  corruption  with 
Christ.  For  myself^  I  could  not  live  a  day,  nor 
any  part  of  a  day,  were  I  not  crucified  with 
Christ.  I  would  sicken,  I  would  swoon,  I  would 
fall  down  on  the  street,  I  would  die.  Come  up 
beside  me,  my  brethren  !  There  is  room  in  Christ 
crucified  for  us  all.  I  am  sure  you  live  a  miserable 
life  down  there,  and  out  of  Christ.  It  is  not  a 
dog's  life  down  there.  Come  up  hither  to  peace 
and  rest.  Learn  to  say,  and  then  say  it  continu- 
ally till  you  say  it  in  your  sinful  dreams, — I  am 
crucified  with  Christ !  And  then  you  will  be  able 
to  work  in  peace,  and  to  eat  and  drink  in  peace, 
and  to  go  out  and  in  in  peace,  and  to  lie  down  in 
peace,  and  rise  up.  Then  you  will  be  able  to  die 
in  peace,  and  to  awake  for  ever  to  Christ  and  His 
never-to-be-broken  peace.  *  I  am  crucified  with 
Christ,  nevertheless  I  live,  yet  not  I,  but  Christ 
liveth  in  me,  and  the  life  which  I  now  live  in  the 
flesh  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  who 
loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me.' 

'  Himself  for  me.  Himself  for  me  ! '     There  is 
104 


AS  A  BELIEVING  MAN 

a  faith  that  for  once  surely,  if  never  again,  will 
satisfy  even  Jesus  Christ,  and  will  set  Him  free 
to  do  some  of  His  mightiest  works.  If  He  went 
about  all  Jewry,  and  all  Galilee,  and  even  crossed 
over  into  Syrophenicia,  seeking  for  faith,  surely 
here  it  is  to  please  Him  at  last.  The  Son  of  God 
for  me  !  Surely  that  must  go  to  Christ's  heart, 
and  carry  His  heart  captive.  And  we  also  will  say 
it ;  I,  at  any  rate,  will  say  it  with  Paul.  For  as 
God  is  my  witness  I  feel  with  Paul  that  nothing 
and  no  one  but  God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Son 
crucified,  could  atone  for  my  sin.  The  Son  of  God 
on  Calvary,  with  all  heaven  and  all  hell  let  loose 
upon  Him, — He,  and  He  alone :  He  and  His 
blood  alone,  can  meet  and  make  answer  to  the  guilt 
and  the  pollution  of  my  sin.  But  His  blood,  the 
BLOOD  OF  God, — It  is  surely  able  to  speak  peace  in 
my  conscience  and  comfort  in  my  heart :  in  my 
curse-filled  conscience,  and  in  my  hell-filled  heart. 
'  Himself  for  me  !  Himself  for  me  !  "*  For  the 
shame,  the  spitting,  the  scourging,  the  staggering 
through  the  hooting  streets,  the  bitter  nails,  the 
heart-gashing  spear,  the  darkness  of  death  and  hell, 
all  crowned  by  His  Father  forsaking  Him, — Yes, 
that  is  the  desert  of  my  sin.  That  answers  to  my 
sin.  My  sin  explains  all  that,  and  needs  all  that, 
and  will  be  satisfied  with  nothing  short  of  all  that. 
My  sin  alone,  in  heaven,  or  earth,  or  hell,  is  the 
full  justification  of  all  that.  All  that,  borne  for 
me  by  my  Maker,  my  Lawgiver,  and  my  Redeemer. 
But  it  is  best  just  as  Paul  has  left  it, — *  He  loved 
me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me."* 

105 


X 

PAUL  AS  THE  CHIEF  OF  SINNERS 

EVERYBODY  knows  what  the  most  eminent 
saints  of  Holy  Scripture  think  and  say  of 
their  sinfulness.  And  here  is  what  some  of  the 
most  eminent  saints  who  have  lived  since  the 
days  of  Holy  Scripture  have  felt  and  said  about 
their  own  exceeding  sinfulness  also.  And  to 
begin  with  one  of  the  very  saintliest  of  them 
all — Samuel  Rutherford.  '  When  I  look  at  my 
sinfulness,'  says  Rutherford,  'my  salvation  is  to 
me  my  Saviour's  greatest  miracle.  He  has 
done  nothing  in  heaven  or  on  earth  like  my 
salvation.'  And  the  title-page  of  John  Bunyan's 
incomparable  autobiography  runs  thus :  '  Grace 
abounding  to  John  Bunyan,  the  chief  of  sinners. 
Come  and  hear,  all  ye  that  fear  God,  and  I  will 
declare  what  He  hath  done  for  my  soul.'  '  Is 
there  but  one  spider  in  all  this  room  ? '  asked  the 
Interpreter.  Then  the  water  stood  in  Christiana's 
eyes,  for  she  was  a  woman  quick  of  apprehension, 
and  she  said,  '  Yes,  Lord,  there  is  more  here  than 
one :  yea,  and  spiders  whose  venom  is  far  more 
destructive  than  that  which  is  in  her.'  'My 
daughters,'   said  Santa  Teresa    on  her  deathbed, 

107 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

'  do  not  follow  my  example ;  for  I  have  been  the 
most  sinful  woman  in  all  the  world.'  But  what 
she  most  dwelt  on  as  she  died  was  that  half 
verse,  '  Cor  contritum — a  broken  and  a  contrite 
heart,  O  God,  Thou  wilt  not  despise.'  'Do 
not  mistake  me,**  said  Jacob  Behmen,  *  for  my 
heart  is  as  full  as  it  can  hold  of  all  malice  at 
you  and  all  ill-will.  My  heart  is  the  very  dung- 
hill of  the  devil,  and  it  is  no  easy  work  to  wrestle 
with  him  on  his  own  chosen  ground.  But  wrestle 
with  him  on  that  ground  of  his  I  must,  and  that 
the  whole  of  my  life  to  the  end."*  '  Begone  !  all 
ye  self-ignorant  and  false  flatterers,'  shouted  Philip 
Neri  at  them ;  '  I  am  good  for  nothing  but  to 
do  evil.'  *  When  a  man  like  me,'  says  Luther, 
*  comes  to  know  the  plague  of  his  own  heart,  he  is 
not  miserable  only — he  is  absolute  misery  itself; 
he  is  not  sinful  only — ^he  is  absolute  sin  itself.'  '  I 
am  made  of  sin,'  sobbed  Bishop  Andrewes,  till  his 
private  prayer-book  was  all  but  unreadable  to  his 
heirs  because  of  its  author's  sweat  and  tears.  '  It 
has  often  appeared  to  me,'  says  Jonathan  Edwards, 
'that  if  God  were  to  mark  my  heart-iniquity  my 
bed  would  be  in  hell.'  '  I  sat  down  on  the  side 
of  a  stank,'  says  Lord  Brodie,  '  and  was  disgusted 
at  the  toads  and  esks  and  many  other  unclean 
creatures  I  saw  sweltering  there.  But  all  the 
time  my  own  heart  was  far  worse  earth  to  me,  and 
filthier  far  than  the  filthy  earth  I  sat  upon.'  '  This 
is  a  faithful  saying,'  says  Paul,  'and  worthy  of  all 
acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world 
to  save  sinners,  of  whom  I  am  chief.'  Well 
io8 


AS  THE  CHIEF  OF  SINNERS 

may  our  Saviour  stop  us  and  ask  us  whether  or 
no  we  have  counted  the  cost  of  being  one  of  His 
out-and-out  disciples  ! 

I  can  very  well  believe  that  there  are  soip^e  new 
beginners  here  who  are  terribly  staggered  with  all 
that.  They  were  brought  up  positively  to  worship 
the  Apostle  Paul,  and  Luther,  and  Rutherford,  and 
Bunyan.  And  how  such  saints  of  God  can  write 
such  bitter  things  against  themselves,  you  cannot 
understand.  You  would  like  to  acquiesce  in  all 
that  these  men  say  about  all  such  matters  as  sin 
and  sinfulness ;  but  you  do  not  see  how  they  can 
honestly  and  truly  say  such  things  as  the  above 
about  themselves. 

Fool !  said  my  muse  to  me. 
Look  in  thy  heart  and  write. 

Remember  these  two  lines  of  the  true  poet. 
Though  they  were  not  written  about  sin  they 
never  come  to  their  fullest  truth  and  their  most 
fruitful  application  till  they  are  taken  home  by 
the  sinner  who  is  seeking  sanctification.  Yes ; 
look  well  into  your  own  heart  and  you  will  find 
there  the  true  explanation  of  your  perplexity  about 
Paul,  and  Luther,  and  Rutherford,  and  Bunyan, 
and  all  the  rest.  For  your  own  heart  holds  the 
secret  to  you  of  this  whole  matter.  If  you  have 
any  real  knowledge  of  your  own  heart  at  all,  this 
cannot  possibly  have  escaped  you,  that  there  are 
things  in  your  own  heart  that  are  most  shocking 
and  prostrating  for  you  to  find  there.  There  are 
thoughts  in  your  heart,  and  feelings,  and  wishes, 

109 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

and  likes  and  dislikes  ;  things  you  have  to  hide,  and 
things  you  cannot  hide :  things  that  if  you  have 
any  religion  at  all  you  must  take  on  your  knees 
to  Jesus  Christ  every  day,  and  things  you  cannot 
take  to  anything  even  in  Him  short  of  His  sin- 
atoning  blood.  Well,  you  have  in  all  that  the 
true  key  to  PauPs  heart,  and  to  the  hearts  of  all 
the  rest.  So  much  so  that  if  you  advance  as  you 
have  begun  you  also  will  soon  be  staggering  new 
beginners  yourself  with  the  Scriptures  you  read, 
and  with  the  psalms  and  hymns  you  select,  and 
with  the  petitions  you  offer  ere  ever  you  are  aware ; 
and,  it  may  yet  be,  with  the  autobiography  you 
will  yet  write  to  tell  to  all  that  fear  God  what  He 
hath  done  for  your  soul.  Just  go  on  in  the  lessons 
of  that  inward  school,  and  you  will  soon  stagger 
us  all  by  the  passion  that  you,  as  well  as  Davia 
and  Asaph,  will  put  into  the  most  penitential  of 
psalms. 

'  The  highest  flames  are  the  most  tremulous,' 
says  Jeremy  Taylor.  That  is  to  say,  the  holiest 
men  are  the  most  full  of  holy  fear,  holy  penitence, 
holy  humility,  and  holy  love.  And  all  that  is  so 
because  the  more  true  spirituality  of  mind  any  man 
has,  the  more  exquisite  will  be  that  man's  sensibility 
to  sin  and  to  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin. 
'  The  saints  of  God  are  far  too  sharp-sighted  for 
their  own  self-satisfaction,'  says  William  Guthrie 
in  his  golden  little  book.  So  they  are.  For, 
by  so  much  the  holier  men  they  become  in  the 
sight  and  estimation  both  of  God  and  man, 
the  more  hideous  and  the  more  hopeless  do  they 
1 10 


AS  THE  CHIEF  OF  SINNERS 

become  to  themselves.  Such  is  their  more  and 
more  sharpened  insight  into  their  own  remaining 
sinfulness.  Even  when  God  is  on  the  point  of 
translating  them  to  Himself  because  they  so  please 
Him,  at  that  very  moment  they  feel  that  they  were 
never  so  near  being  absolute  castaways.  When  all 
other  men  are  worshipping  them  for  their  saint- 
liness,  and  rightly  so,  those  right  saints  of  God  are 
gnashing  their  teeth  at  the  devilries  that  are  still 
rampant  in  their  own  heart.  They  hate  themselves 
the  more  you  love  them.  They  curse  themselves 
the  more  you  bless  them.  The  more  you  exalt  and 
enthrone  them  the  more  they  lie  with  their  faces 
on  the  earth.  When  you  load  them  with  honours, 
and  banquet  them  with  praises,  they  make  ashes 
their  bread  and  tears  their  drink.  Their  whole 
head  will  be  waters,  and  their  eyes  one  fountain  of 
tears  just  at  that  moment  when  God  is  rising  up 
in  compassion,  and  in  recompense,  to  wipe  ail  tears 
from  their  eyes  for  ever. 

And  it  is  the  sight  of  God  that  does  it.  It  Is 
the  sight  of  Jesus  Christ  that  does  it.  It  is  God's 
holy  law  of  love  entering  our  hearts  ever  deeper 
and  deeper  that  does  it.  It  is  when  I  take  my 
own  heart,  with  all  its  wickedness-working  self-love, 
and  with  all  its  self-seeking  in  everything,  and 
self-serving  out  of  everything  and  every  one  :  with 
all  its  deceitfulness,  and  disingenuousness,  and  envy, 
and  jealousy,  and  grudging,  and  malevolence,  and 
Jay  it  alongside  of  the  holy  heart  of  my  Lord, — it 
is  that  that  does  it.  It  is  then  that  I  sit  down  at 
a  stank-side  with  poor  Lord  Brodie.     It  is  then 

III 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

that  my  midnight  Bible  begins  to  open  at  unwonted 
places,  and  I  begin  to  make  bosom  friends  of 
unwonted  people.  It  is  then  that  I  search  the 
Book  of  Job,  say,  not  any  more  for  its  incomparable 
dialectic  and  its  noble  literature.  All  these  things, 
as  Halyburton  has  it,  have  now  become  com- 
paratively distasteful  to  me.  Or  if  not  distasteful, 
then  without  taste  and  insipid,  as  Job  himself  says 
about  the  white  of  an  egg.  No :  my  soul  turns 
in  its  agony  of  pain  and  shame  and  seeks  an  utter- 
ance for  itself  in  such  consummating  passages  as 
these.  '  I  have  heard  of  Thee  by  the  hearing  of 
the  ear  :  but  now  mine  eye  seeth  Thee.  Wherefore 
I  abhor  myself,  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes. 
Behold,  I  am  vile  :  what  shall  I  answer  Thee  ?  I 
will  lay  my  hand  upon  my  mouth.'  And  from 
that  my  Bible  begins  to  open  at  the  right  places 
for  me  in  David,  and  in  Asaph,  and  in  Ezra,  and 
In  Daniel,  and  in  Peter,  and  in  Paul :  and  so  on  to 
all  Paul-like  men  down  to  my  own  day.  And  thus  it 
comes  about  that  the  authors  who  are  classical  to  me 
now  are  not  the  ephemerids  in  religion  or  in  litera- 
ture that  I  used  to  waste  my  time  and  my  money 
upon  when  I  was  a  neophyte  :  my  true  classics 
now  are  those  masterly  men  who  look  into  their 
own  hearts  and  then  write  for  my  heart.  It  is  the 
sight  of  God  that  has  made  them  the  writers  they 
are,  and  it  is  the  same  sight  that  is  at  last  making 
me  the  reader  that  I,  too  late,  am  beginning  to  be. 
It  is  the  sight  of  God  that  does  it,  till  my  sinful- 
ness takes  such  a  deep  spiritualness,  and  such  a 
high  exclusiveness,  and  such  a  hidden  secretness, 
112 


AS  THE  CHIEF  OF  SINNERS 

that  I  can  find  fit  utterance  for  all  that  is  within 
me  in  David,  and  in  David's  greatest  psahns,  alone. 
As  thus  : — *  Against  Thee,  Thee  only,  have  I 
sinned,  and  done  this  evil  in  Thy  sight.  The 
sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit :  a  broken  and 
a  contrite  heart,  O  God,  Thou  wilt  not  despise. 
Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O  God,  and  renew  a 
right  spirit  within  me.' 

It  was  their  own  sin  :  or  to  speak  much  more 
exactly,  it  was  their  own  sinfulness,  that  so 
humbled  Rutherford  and  Bunyan  and  Christiana 
and  Teresa,  and  broke  their  hearts.  Nothing  at 
all  humiliates  ;  nothing  really  touches  the  hearts 
of  people  like  them  ;  but  the  inward  sinfulness  of 
their  own  hearts.  We  shallow-hearted  fools  would 
think  and  would  say  that  it  was  some  great  crime 
or  open  scandal  that  those  saintly  men  and  women 
had  fallen  into.  Oh,  no  !  there  were  no  men  nor 
women  in  their  day  of  so  blameless  a  name  as  they. 
One  of  themselves  used  to  say  that  it  was  not  '  so 
humiliating  and  heart-breaking  to  be  sometimes 
like  a  beast,  as  to  be  always  like  a  devil.  But,  to 
be  both  ! '  he  cried  out  in  his  twofold  agony.  The 
things  of  this  world  also  that  so  humiliate  all 
other  men  do  not  any  more  bring  so  much  as  a 
momentary  blush  to  men  like  Rutherford,  and 
women  like  Teresa.  Just  go  over  the  things  that 
humilate  and  shame  you  in  your  earthly  life  and 
its  circumstances  ;  and  then  pass  over  into  the 
ranks  of  God's  saints,  and  you  will  there  enter  on 
a  career  of  humiliation  that  will  quite  drink  up 
the  things  that  make  you  so  ashamed  now,  till  you 
H  113 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

will  completely  forget  their  very  existence.  What 
I  am  at  this  moment  contending  for  is  this,  that 
sin  alone  truly  humiliates  a  saint,  even  as  holiness 
alone  truly  exalts  him.  It  was  sin,  and  especially 
sinfulness,  that  made  those  great  saints  cry  out  as 
they  did. 

A  Greek  fortune-teller  was  once  reading  Socrates's 
hands  and  face  to  discern  his  true  character  and  to 
advertise  the  people  of  Athens  of  his  real  deserts. 
And  as  he  went  on  he  startled  the  whole  assembly 
by  pronouncing  Socrates  to  be  the  most  incontinent 
and  libidinous  man  in  all  the  city ;  the  greatest  ex- 
tortioner and  thief ;  and  even  worse  things  than  all 
that.  And  when  the  enraged  crowd  were  about 
to  fall  upon  the  soothsayer  and  tear  him  to  pieces 
for  saying  such  things  about  their  greatest  saint, 
Socrates  himself  came  forward  and  restrained  their 
anger  and  confessed  openly  and  said,  '  Ye  men  of 
Athens,  let  this  truth-speaking  man  alone,  and  do 
him  no  harm.  He  has  said  nothing  amiss  about 
me.  For  there  is  no  man  among  you  all  who  is  by 
nature  more  predisposed  to  all  these  evil  things 
than  I  am.'  And  with  that  he  quieted  and 
taught  and  solemnised  the  whole  city.  Now  in 
that  again  Socrates  was  God's  dispensational 
apostle  and  preacher  to  the  Greek  people.  For 
he  was  teaching  them  that  there  is,  to  begin  with, 
no  difference.  That  our  hearts  by  nature  are  all 
equally  evil.  But  that,  as  the  Stoics  taught, 
though  all  vice  is  equally  in  us  all,  it  is  not  equally 
extant  in  us  all.  As  also  that  he  who  knows  his 
own  heart  will  measure  his  own  worth  by  his  own 
114 


AS  THE  CHIEF  OF  SINNERS 

heart  and  not  by  the  valuation  of  the  street  and 
the  market-place.  As  also  that  the  noblest  and 
best  men  in  all  lands,  and  in  all  dispensations,  are 
those  who  know  themselves,  and  who  out  of  that 
knowledge  keep  themselves  under,  and  wait  upon 
God,  till  they  attain  in  His  good  time  to  both  a 
blameless  heart,  a  blameless  conscience,  and  a  for 
ever  blameless  life. 

Yet  another  use  of  this  solemn  subject  is  for  the 
comfort  of  the  true  people  of  God.  It  is  to  let 
them  see  that  they  are  not  alone,  and  that  no 
strange  thing  is  befalling  them,  in  all  they  are 
passing  through.  For  myself,  when  I  hear  Paul 
saying  this  that  is  in  the  text,  and  Luther,  and 
Rutherford,  and  Bunyan,  and  Andrewes,  and 
Edwards,  and  Brodie,  it  is  with  me  as  it  was  with 
John  Bunyan's  pilgrim  in  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death.  '  About  the  midst  of  the  valley  I  per- 
ceived the  mouth  of  hell  to  be,  and  it  stood  hard 
by  the  wayside,  and  ever  and  anon  the  flame  and 
smoke,  with  sparks  and  noises,  would  come  out  in 
such  abundance  that  Christian  said.  What  shall  I 
do  ?  One  thing  I  would  not  that  you  let  slip. 
Just  when  he  was  come  over  against  the  mouth  of 
the  burning  pit,  one  of  the  wicked  ones  got  behind 
him,  and  stepped  up  softly  to  him,  and  whisper- 
ingly,  suggested  many  grievous  blasphemies  to  him, 
which  he  verily  thought  had  proceeded  from  his 
own  mind.  This  put  Christian  to  it  more  than 
anything  he  had  met  with  before,  yet  could  he 
have  helped  it,  he  would  not  have  done  it,  but  he 
had  not  the  discretion,  neither  to  stop  his  ears,  nor 

lis 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

to  know  from  whence  these  blasphemies  came.' 
And  here  comes  our  point.  '  When  Christian  had 
travelled  in  this  disconsolate  condition  some  con- 
siderable time,  he  thought  he  heard  the  voice  of  a 
man,  as  going  before  him,  saying,  Though  I  walk 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  I  will 
fear  none  ill,  for  Thou  art  with  me.  Then  was 
Christian  glad,  and  that  for  these  reasons.  First, 
because  he  gathered  from  them  that  some  one  who 
feared  God  was  in  the  valley  as  well  as  himself. 
Second,  for  that  he  perceived  God  was  with  them, 
though  in  that  dark  and  dismal  state ;  and  why 
not,  thought  he,  with  me  ?  though  by  reason  of 
the  impediment  that  attends  this  place,  I  cannot 
perceive  it.  Thirdly,  for  that  he  hoped  to  have 
company  by  and  by.  So  he  went  on,  and  called 
to  him  that  was  before,  but  that  he  knew  not 
what  to  answer,  for  that  he  also  thought  himself 
to  be  alone.  But  by  and  by  the  day  broke. 
Then  said  Christian,  He  hath  turned  the  shadow 
of  death  into  the  morning.' 


Ii6 


XI 
PAUL'S  THORN  THAT  WAS  GIVEN  HIM 

THE  circumstances  with  Paul  were  these.  To 
prepare  Paul  for  his  great  Apostolic  work 
he  had  been  endowed  with  the  most  extraordinary 
gifts  of  mind.  Paul  was  a  man  of  genius  of  the 
very  foremost  rank.  And  nothing  exalts  a  man, 
sacred  or  profane,  in  his  own  esteem  like  great 
genius.  A  towering  intellect  is  perhaps  the 
greatest  temptation  that  can  be  put  upon  any 
mortal  man.  And  then  the  unparalleled  privileges 
and  promotions  that  were  added  to  all  that  in 
PauPs  case,  combined  to  make  PauFs  temptation  to 
vainglory  the  most  terrible  temptation  that  ever 
was  put  upon  any  human  being, — unless  we  call 
Jesus  Christ  a  human  being.  But  to  keep  to  Paul. 
His  election  out  of  all  living  men  for  the  greatest 
service  and  the  greatest  reward  after  the  service 
and  the  reward  of  Jesus  Christ  Himself;  his 
miraculous  conversion ;  his  unparalleled  honours 
and  privileges  after  his  conversion  far  above  all 
the  greatest  Apostles  taken  together ;  his  labours 
more  abundant  than  they  all ;  and  his  transcending 
successes — all  that  was  enough,  according  to  Paul's 
own  admission  and  confession  afterwards,  to  exalt 

117 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

him  above  measure.  Rightly  received  and  rightly 
employed  all  these  things  ought  only  to  have  made 
Paul  the  humblest  and  the  lowliest-minded  of  all 
men.  But  the  very  fact  that  He  who  knew  His 
servant  through  and  through  saw  it  to  be 
absolutely  necessary  to  balance  His  servant's 
talents  and  prerogatives  with  such  thorns  and 
such  buiFetings,  is  a  sure  lesson  to  us  that  the 
humblest  of  saints  is  not  safe  from  pride,  nor  the 
most  heavenly-minded  of  men  above  dangerously 
delighting  in  the  glory  of  this  earth.  In  short,  by 
far  the  best  saint  then  living  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  was  but  half  sanctified,  and  his  Divine 
Master  saw  that  to  be  the  case,  and  took  steps 
accordingly. 

Now  just  what  that  thorn  in  PauPs  flesh  really 
was  nobody  knows.  No  end  of  guesses  and 
speculations  have  been  ventured  about  it,  but  with 
no  real  result.  The  Fathers  and  the  Middle-age 
men  for  the  most  part  took  PauPs  thorn  to  be 
something  sensual,  while  the  great  body  of 
Protestant  and  evangelical  commentators  hold  that 
it  must  have  been  something  wholly  spiritual  and 
experimental.  Chrysostom  thought  he  saw  Hymen- 
aeus  and  Alexander  in  it.  Whereas  Calvin  took 
it  to  be  the  lifelong  impalement  of  PauPs  inner 
man  upon  all  kinds  of  trouble  and  trial.  Mosheim 
again  felt  sure  it  was  the  ranklings  of  lifelong 
remorse  out  of  PauPs  early  days  ;  and  so  on.  In 
our  own  day  interpretation  has  taken  a  line  of  its 
own  on  this  matter.  Lightfoot  holds  strongly 
that  it  was  epilepsy.  And  while  Dean  Farrar 
Ii8 


PAUL'S  THORN  THAT  WAS  GIVEN  HIM 

admits  that  there  is  something  to  be  said  for 
epilepsy,  he  decides  on  the  whole  for  ophthalmia. 
And  then  Professor  Ramsay,  Paul's  latest,  and  in 
his  own  field  one  of  PauPs  very  best  commenta- 
tors, has  no  doubt  at  all  but  that  it  was  one  of 
the  burning-up  fevers  so  frequent  to  this  day  in 
Asia  Minor.  Whatever  his  thorn  really  was,  we 
are  left  in  no  doubt  as  to  what  Paul  did  with  it. 
And  we  are  left  in  just  as  little  doubt  as  to  what 
his  Master's  mind  and  will  were  about  it.  And 
then  all  that  leads  us  up  to  this  magnificent 
resolve  of  the  Apostle — '  Most  gladly,  therefore, 
will  I  rather  glory  in  my  infirmities,  that  the 
power  of  Christ  may  rest  upon  me."*  A  splendid 
parenthesis,  in  a  splendid  argument.  An  autobio- 
graphic chapter  of  the  foremost  instructiveness 
and  impressiveness,  and  of  all  kinds  of  profit  and 
delight,  to  read  and  to  remember. 

Now  while  it  will  be  the  most  fruitless  of  all 
our  studies  to  seek  to  find  out  what  exactly 
Paul's  secret  thorn  was ;  on  the  other  hand  it  will 
be  one  of  the  most  fruitful  and  rewarding  of  all 
our  very  best  studies,  both  of  ourselves  and  of 
Holy  Scripture  also,  if  we  can  find  out  what  our 
own  thorn  is,  and  can  then  go  on  to  make  the 
right  use  of  our  own  thorn.  To  be  told  even  by 
himself  just  what  PauFs  thorn  actually  was  would 
not  bring  to  us  one  atom  of  real  benefit.  But  if 
I  have  a  thorn  in  my  own  flesh,  and  if  I  know 
what  it  is,  and  why  it  is  there,  and  what  I  am  to 
do  with  it — that  will  be  one  of  the  divinest  dis- 
coveries  in   this  world    to   me ;  that  will  be  the 

119 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

salvation  of  my  own  soul  to  me.  Never  mind  the 
commentators  on  PauFs  thorn ;  no  not  the  very 
best  of  them,  lest  they  draw  your  attention  away 
from  your  own.  Be  you  your  own  commentator 
on  all  such  subjects.  Be  you  your  own  thorn- 
student,  especially.  What  is  it  then  that  so 
tortures  you,  and  rankles  in  you,  till  your  life  is 
absolutely  intolerable  to  you  ?  What  is  it  that 
gnaws  and  saps  and  undermines  all  your  joy  in 
this  life  ?  What  is  it  that  makes  you  beseech  the 
Lord  thrice,  and  without  ceasing,  that  it  may 
depart  from  you  ?  Tell  me  that,  and  then  I  will 
tell  you  PauPs  thorn. 

Oh,  no  !  you  exclaim  to  me,  it  was  not  his  sore 
eyes.  It  was  not  his  bad  headaches.  It  was  not 
even  his  frequent  falling-sicknesses.  Oh  dear  no, 
you  say  again.  A  thousand  years  of  the  most 
splitting  headaches  would  not  have  laid  you  so  low 
and  so  helpless ;  they  would  not  have  so  taken  the 
blood  out  of  your  cheeks,  and  so  broken  off  all 
your  interest  and  stake  in  life,  and  so  cast  you  on 
your  knees  continually,  as  this  thing  has  done  that 
you  point  at  so  mysteriously,  but  with  such  evident 
assurance  that  you  yourself  have  fallen  into  the  same 
hedge  of  thorns  with  Paul.  You  cannot  be  abso- 
lutely and  demonstrably  sure,  you  admit,  that  it  was 
not  epilepsy,  or  ophthalmia,  or  a  consuming  fever 
in  Paul.  But  you  protest  at  us,  as  if  we  had  been 
stealing  Paul  from  you,  that  if  it  was  either  sore 
eyes,  or  a  sick  headache,  or  anything  of  that  kind, 
then  Paul  was  not  the  man  that  up  till  now  you 
have  taken  him  to  be.     But  you  will  not  let  all 

120 


PAUL'S  THORN  THAT  WAS  GIVEN  HIM 

the  world,  learned  or  ignorant,  take  away  Paul 
from  you.  Almost  as  well  take  away  his  Master  ! 
No  !  you  break  out  with  Bunyan,  Paul  was  that 
nightingale  that  sang  his  song  from  God  to  you 
because  his  breast  was  all  the  time  pressed  upon 
the  thorn.  You  cannot  sing  like  Paul,  but  you  have 
not  met  with  any  man  who  follows  Paul's  song  with 
more  knowledge  and  with  more  enjoyment  than 
you  do ;  and  therefore  you  reason  that  you  have 
somewhat  of  PauPs  same  thorn  of  God  against  your 
breast.  And  you  speak  so  convincingly,  and  with 
such  a  note  of  assurance  about  it,  that  you  almost 
persuade  us  that  you  have  actually  found  out  the 
riddle.  Only,  you  are  almost  as  mysterious  about 
this  whole  matter  as  Paul  was  himself.  There 
are  some  things,  you  say,  that  must  remain 
mysteries,  till  each  man  discovers  them  for  himself. 
No  man  ever  discovered  and  laid  bare  Paul's  thorn 
to  you,  and  you  will  never  open  your  thorn  to 
any  man  who  has  not  already  suffered  from,  and  so 
discovered,  his  own.  You  only  wait  till  our  breast 
is  at  our  thorn  also ;  and  then  by  our  singing 
you  will  know  what  has  happened  to  us  also. 
When  we  so  sing,  or  so  listen  to  such  singing,  you 
will  enrol  us  with  Paul  and  with  yourself  among 
those  who  have  come  to  visions  and  revelations  of 
the  Lord.  Oh,  no  !  you  smile  at  our  innocence, 
and  say  to  us  :  Don't  you  see  that  the  grace  and 
the  strength  of  Christ  are  not  prescribed  anywhere 
else  in  Holy  Scripture  for  epilepsy  or  ophthalmia  ? 
Luke  was  there  with  his  balsams,  and  with  his 
changes  of  air,  and  with  his  rests  in  a  desert  place, 

121 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

for  all  these  ailments  of  the  Apostle.  Don't  you 
see,  you  demand  of  us,  that  this  very  prescription 
proclaims  the  malady ;  the  very  medicine  more 
than  half  discovers  the  disease.  Iron :  a  little 
wine  :  sound  sleep  :  nourishing  food  :  a  month  at 
the  baths  up  among  the  mountains ;  these  things 
would  cure  the  commentators.  But  the  grace 
and  the  strength  and  the  righteousness  of  Christ 
are  reserved  for  far  other  thorns  than  Luke  could 
extract,  or  even  alleviate. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  the  most  learned  men 
have  been  at  their  wits'*  end  about  Paul's  thorn. 
No  blame  to  them  since  the  very  Apostle  himself 
made  such  a  profound  mistake  about  his  own 
thorn.  With  all  his  clearness  of  intellect,  and 
with  all  his  spiritual  insight,  Paul  was  as  much  at 
sea  about  his  own  thorn  as  if  he  had  been  a  com- 
mentator of  the  dark  ages.  If  I  may  say  so,  with 
my  unsurpassed  respect  for  so  great  an  Apostle,  he 
behaved  like  one  of  his  own  neophytes  when  his 
own  thorn  first  came  to  him  from  Christ.  By 
that  time  he  ought  to  have  been  a  teacher,  but  he 
had  still  need  himself  to  be  taught  which  be  the 
first  principles  of  personal  religion,  and  had  need 
of  milk,  and  not  of  strong  meat.  For  no  sooner 
did  the  inward  bleeding  begin  in  Paul ;  no  sooner 
did  he  begin  to  lose  his  night's  rest  because  of  the 
pain  ;  no  sooner  did  his  heart  begin  to  sink  within 
him,  than  he  fell  to  praying  with  all  his  well- 
known  importunity  that  this  whole  thorn  of  his 
might  be  immediately  taken  away.  Greatest  of 
the  apostles  as  he  was ;  councillor  almost  of  God 
122 


PAUL'S  THORN  THAT  WAS  GIVEN  HIM 

Himself  as  he  was;  Paul's  insight  and  faith  and 
patience  wholly  failed  him  when  his  own  thorn 
began  its  sanctifying  work  within  him.  You  never 
made  a  greater  mistake  yourself  than  Paul  made. 
With  all  his  boasted  knowledge  of  the  mind  of 
Christ,  there  was  not  a  catechumen  in  Corinth  or  in 
Philippi  with  more  of  a  fretful  child  in  him  than 
the  so-called  great  Apostle  was  when  his  thorn 
came  into  his  own  flesh.  For  just  hear  his  own 
ashamed  confession  long  afterwards  as  to  what 
he  did.  Without  ever  once  asking  either  his 
Master  or  himself  why  that  thorn  had  been  sent 
to  him  ;  without  ever  looking  once  into  his  own 
heart  for  the  sure  explanation  and  the  clear  justi- 
fication of  the  thorn,  he  instantly  demanded  that 
it  should  be  removed.  He  acted  as  if  his  Master 
had  paid  no  attention  as  to  what  befell  His  servant. 
He  behaved  himself  as  if  his  thorn  had  come  to 
him  out  of  nothing  better  than  Christ's  sheer 
caprice.  'This,'  he  said  thrice,  'is  so  much  pure  and 
purposeless  pain.  This  is  so  much  quite  gratuitous 
suffering  that  Thou  hast  let  come  upon  me.  Let 
this  thorn  only  depart  from  me,'  he  cried,  '  and 
I  will  return  to  my  faith,  and  to  my  love,  and  to 
my  service  of  Thee  and  Thy  people ;  but  not 
otherwise.  As  long  as  this  thorn  lasts  and  thus 
lacerates  me,  how  shall  I  serve  Thee  or  finish  Thy 
work  ? '  But  his  Lord  compassionately  overlooked 
and  freely  forgave  Paul  all  his  unbelief  and  all 
his  impatience  and  all  his  foolish  charges,  and 
condescended  and  said  to  him  :  My  grace  is  suffi- 
cient for  thee ;  for  My  strength  is  made  perfect  in 

123 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

weakness.  Lord,  exclaimed  Peter  in  his  precipi- 
tancy, not  my  feet  only,  but  also  my  hands  and 
my  head.  And  Paul,  a  much  stronger  and  a 
much  less  excitable  man,  said  after  he  got  his 
answer,  and  said  it  more  and  more  all  his  days  : 
*  Lord,  not  in  one  part  of  my  flesh  only,  but 
plant  those  soul-saving  thorns  of  Thine  in  all  the 
still  sinful  parts  of  my  body  and  my  mind,  in 
order  that  the  power  of  Christ  may  rest  upon  me. 
For  now  as  often  as  I  am  weak  then  am  I 
strong.  I  am  become  a  fool  in  my  complaining. 
I  still  mistake  my  own  salvation  even  when  it  lies 
at  my  door.' 

But  to  come  back  to  our  riddle,  and  to  set  it 
over  again  to  ourselves,  so  as  to  carry  it  home  and 
work  at  it  till  we  find  out  its  true  answer.  What 
then  is  that  thorn  in  the  flesh  of  all  God's  best 
saints  and  of  all  Christ's  best  servants, — that 
thorn  which  still  humbles,  and  humbles,  and 
humbles  them  down,  past  all  possible  glorying  in 
anything  they  are,  or  have  ever  been,  or  can  ever 
be?  Humbles  the  most  heavenly-minded  men  in 
all  the  world  down  to  death  and  hell,  and  so 
humbles  such  men  only?  What  is  it  that  Christ 
sends  to  stab  His  best  servants  deeper  and  deeper 
every  day,  and  to  impale  them  and  buffet  them  till 
they  are  so  many  dead  corpses  rather  than  living  and 
breathing  and  Christian  men  ?  And  then  on  the 
other  hand,  what  is  that  same  thorn  and  stake 
and  devil's  fist  that  at  every  stab  and  stound  and 
blow  draws  down  the  whole  grace  of  Jesus  Christ 
on  the  sufferer,  till  the  sanctified  saint  kisses  his 
124 


PAUL'S  THORN  THAT  WAS  GIVEN  HIM 

thorn,  and  blesses  his  Lord,  and  would  not  part 
with  the  one  or  the  other  for  all  the  world  ? 
Samson  offered  so  many  sheets  and  so  many 
changes  of  raiment  to  any  Philistine  who  within 
seven  days  would  declare  his  riddle.  And  after 
John  Bunyan  had  reset  Samson's  riddle  to  the 
readers  of  his  Grace  Abounding  he  felt  sure  that 
his  sheets  and  his  changes  of  raiment  were  all 
quite  safe,  for,  after  his  offer  to  them,  he  said  : 
'The  Philistines  will  not  understand  me.  But, 
all  the  same,  it  is  written  in  the  Scriptures,  the 
father  to  the  children  shall  make  known  in  holy 
riddles  the  deep  things  of  God."*  I  give  you 
therefore  the  next  seven  days  and  seven  nights, 
Philistines  and  all,  to  find  out  Paul's  great  riddle. 
And  as  many  of  the  children  of  light  as  shall 
have  found  out  the  only  possible  answer  by  this 
night  se'ennight  shall  here  receive,  along  with  the 
grace  and  strength  of  Christ,  a  change  of  raiment. 
Now  Joshua  was  clothed  with  filthy  garments,  and 
stood  before  the  angel.  And  He  answered  and 
said  to  those  that  stood  before  him,  saying :  Take 
away  the  filthy  garments  from  him.  And  unto 
him  He  said  :  Behold,  I  have  caused  thine  iniquity  to 
pass  from  thee,  and  I  will  clothe  thee  with  change 
of  raiment.  And  I  said.  Let  them  set  a  fair 
mitre  upon  his  head.  So  they  set  a  fair  mitre 
upon  his  head.  And  the  angel  of  the  Lord  stood 
by.  Such  a  reward  still  awaits  all  those  who  so 
plough  with  Paul's  heifer  as  to  find  out  his  riddle. 
Yes ;  such  a  beautiful  change  of  raiment  awaits 
them,  and  such  a  fair  mitre  upon  their  head. 

125 


XII 
PAUL  AS  SOLD  UNDER  SIN 

AS  often  as  my  attentive  bookseller  sends  me 
'  on  approval '  another  new  commentary  on 
the  Romans,  I  immediately  turn  to  the  seventh 
chapter.  And  if  the  commentator  sets  up  a 
man  of  straw  in  the  seventh  chapter,  I  immediately 
shut  the  book.  I  at  once  send  back  the  book  and 
say.  No,  thank  you.  That  is  not  the  man  for  my 
hard-earned  money.  Just  as  Paul  himself  would 
have  scornfully  sent  back  the  same  book  with  this 
message  to  its  author — If  I  have  told  you  earthly 
things,  and  you  have  so  misunderstood  me,  how 
shall  I  trust  you  to  interpret  my  heavenly  things  ? 
No,  thank  you,  I  say,  as  I  send  back  the  soon- 
sampled  book.  But  send  me  for  my  student  friends 
as  many  Luthers  on  the  Galatians  as  you  can  lay 
your  hands  on,  and  as  many  Marshalls  on  Sancti- 
fication,  in  order  that  they  may  one  day  be 
preachers  after  Paul's  own  heart.  But  no,  not 
that  blind  leader  of  the  blind. 

It  is  an  old  canon  of  interpretation  that  Paul 
alone  is  his  own  true  interpreter.  And  the  true 
student  will  take  the  canon  down.  Noii^  nisi  ex 
ipso  Paulo,  Paulum  potes  interpretari.     That  is  to 

127 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

say — ^There    is    no    other   possible  interpreter   of 
Paul,  in  all  the  world  of  interpretation,  but  only 
Paul  himself.      And  I  have  come  upon  two  other 
exegetical  rules  that  have  produced  the  most  pro- 
found results  out  of  this  present  text ;  '  the  right 
context  is  half  the  interpretation/    And  this  out  of 
the  same  incomparable  interpreter  of  Paul — *  If  a 
man  would  open  up  Paul,  let  him  do  it  rationally. 
Let  him  consider  well  the  Apostle's    own   words 
both   before  the  text  and  after  it.'     Now   when 
we   take   Paul   in   this   present   text   as   speaking 
seriously   and    not   in   a   sacred    jest ;    and    then 
when  we  take  the  whole  context,  we  get  an  inter- 
pretation  altogether   worthy   of  Paul ;  altogether 
worthy  of  the  depth  and  strength  and  majesty  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans ;  altogether  worthy  of 
the  grace  of  God,  and  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
as,  also,  altogether  worthy  of  the  work  of  the  Lloly 
Ghost.      Then  the  seventh  of  the  Romans  becomes 
henceforth  to  us,  what  it  most  certainly  is,  the  most 
terrible  tragedy  in  all  literature,  ancient  or  modern, 
sacred  or  profane.      Set  beside  the  seventh  of  the 
Romans  all  your  so-called  great  tragedies — your 
Macbeths,  your  Hamlets,  your  Lears,  your  Othellos, 
are  all  but  so   many  stage-plays  :  so  much  sound 
and    fury,   signifying   next    to    nothing  when   set 
alongside    this   awful    tragedy   of    sin    in    a   soul 
under  a  supreme  sanctification.      The  seventh  of 
the  Romans  should  always  be  printed  in  letters  of 
blood.      Here  are  passions.      Here  are  terror  and 
pity.       Here   heaven    and   hell  meet,  as   nowhere 
else  in  heaven  or  hell ;  and  that  too  for  their  last 
128 


AS  SOLD  UNDER  SIN 

grapple  together  for  the  everlasting  possession  of 
that  immortal  soul,  till  you  have  a  tragedy  indeed  ; 
and,  beside  which,  there  is  no  other  tragedy. 
Only,  as  Luther  says,  give  not  such  strong  wine  to 
a  sucking  child. 

'  Did  I  see,'  says  Dr.  Newman,  '  a  boy  of  good 
make  and  mind,  with  the  tokens  on  him  of  a 
refined  nature,  cast  upon  the  world  without  provi- 
sion, unable  to  say  whence  he  came,  unable  to  tell 
us  his  birthplace,  or  his  family  connections,  I  should 
conclude  that  there  was  some  sad  secret  connected 
with  his  history.'  And  did  I  hear  or  read  of  a  man 
of  refined  mind,  and  of  a  great  nobility  of  nature 
that  nothing  could  obliterate,  and,  withal,  a  truly 
Christian  man ;  did  I  read  or  hear  of  such  a  man 
held  in  captivity  by  some  vile,  cruel,  cannibal  tribe 
in  South  America,  or  Central  Africa,  I  would  feel 
sure  that  he  had  a  tale  to  tell  that  would  harrow 
my  heart.  I  would  not  need  to  be  told  by  pen 
and  ink  the  inconsolable  agony  of  that  man's  heart. 
I  could  picture  to  myself  that  poor  captive's  utter 
wretchedness.  I  could  see  him  making  desperate 
attempts  to  escape  his  horrible  captivity,  only  to  be 
overtaken  and  dragged  back  to  a  still  more  cruel 
bondage.  And  were  that  captive  able  by  some 
secret  and  extraordinary  providence  to  send  home 
to  this  country  so  much  as  a  single  page  out  of  his 
dreadful  life,  it  would  scarcely  be  believed,  so  far 
past  all  imagination  of  free  men  at  home  would  be 
his  incoherent  outcries.  But  all  that  would  be 
but  a  schoolboy's  story-book  beside  this  agonised 
outcry  of  a   great  saint  of  God   sold  under  sin. 

I  129 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

Yes,  a  great  saint  of  God.  For  no  soul  of  man  is 
sold  under  sin  to  such  an  agony  as  this  who  is  not, 
all  the  time,  a  heaven-born  and  a  holy  man  :  holy 
almost  as  God  is  holy.  This  is  the  slavery  of  the 
spirit  in  a  supremely  spiritual  man :  a  slavery 
past  all  imagination  of  the  commonplace  Christian 
mind.  You  see  that  in  the  incredulous,  uncom- 
prehending, and  utterly  misunderstanding  way,  in 
which  PauFs  agonised  outbursts  are  sometimes 
stumbled  at,  even  by  some  of  our  masters  in 
Israel. 

And  no  wonder,  for  the  most  complete  and 
cruel  captivity,  the  most  utter  and  hopeless 
slavery  you  ever  heard  of,  falls  far  short  of  being 
sold  under  sin.  There  is  a  depth  of  misery  in 
being  so  sold  :  there  is  a  bleak  and  blank  hope- 
lessness in  being  so  sold  :  nay,  there  is  a  certain 
self-revenging  admission  of  justice  in  being  so  sold, 
that  all  goes  to  make  up  this  uttermost  agony  of 
the  self-sold  slave.  For  he  was  not  taken  in 
honourable  battle.  He  was  not  suddenly  sur- 
prised and  swept  away  into  all  this  terrible 
captivity  against  his  own  will,  and  against  all  that 
he  could  do  to  resist  and  to  escape.  No.  The 
gnashing  agony  of  his  heart  all  his  days  will  be 
because  he  so  sold  himself.  This  will  be  the 
deepest  bitterness  of  his  bitterest  cup.  This  will 
be  the  cruelest  rivet  of  his  most  galling  chain. 
And  then  to  be  sold  under  sin  !  The  vilest  and 
cruelest  savage  chief  who  makes  God's  earth  the 
deviPs  hell  to  himself  and  others,  is  not  sin.  Sin 
has  made  him  what  he  is,  and  it  has  made  his 
130 


AS  SOLD  UNDER  SIN 

slaves  and  his  victims  what  they  are ;  but  both 
his  cruelty  and  their  misery  fall  far  short  of  the 
full  cruelty  and  the  full  misery  of  sin.  Sin  could 
bring  forth  ten  thousand  hells  like  that,  and  it 
could  still  go  on  bringing  forth  as  many  more. 
Sin  is  sin.  And  the  true  saint  of  God  feels  that 
in  his  heart  of  hearts,  till  he  scarce  feels  anything 
else.  Till  what  the  whole  life  of  a  true  saint 
sold  under  sin  can  be  made  in  its  agony,  you  may 
read  in  the  seventh  of  Romans  ;  unless  you 
have  such  an  agony  in  your  own  bosom  that  the 
seventh  of  the  Romans  sounds  flat  and  tame 
beside  it.  '  What  I  hate,  that  do  I !'  Oh,  no  ! 
That  is  no  man  of  straw.  That  is  no  studied 
artifice  of  Pauline  rhetoric.  That  is  no  young 
Pharisee.  Oh,  no,  that  is  Paul  the  aged  himself. 
That  is  the  holy  Apostle  himself  in  all  his  unap- 
proached  holiness.  Tragedies  !  Tragedies  of  hatred 
and  of  revenge  !  If  you  would  see  hatred  and 
revenge  red-hot,  and  poured,  not  on  the  head  of  a 
hated  enemy,  but,  what  I  have  never  read  in  any 
of  your  stage-tragedies,  poured  in  all  its  red- 
hotness  in  upon  a  man's  own  heart ;  if  you  would 
see  the  true  hatred  and  the  true  revenge,  come  to 
this  New  Testament  theatre.  Come  to  Paul  for  a 
right  tragic  author.  Or  far  better,  come  to  holi- 
ness and  heavenly- mindedness  yourself,  and  then 
you  will  have  this  whole  agony  enacted  in  your 
own  heart ;  and  that  with  more  and  more  passion 
in  your  heart,  all  the  days  of  your  life  on  this 
hateful  earth.  My  brethren,  if  you  will  believe 
me,  there  is  nothing  in  heaven  or  on  earth,  there 

131 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

is  nothing  in  God  or  in  man,  that  from  my  youth 
up  I  have  read  more  about,  or  thought  more 
about,  than  just  this  text  and  its  two  contexts. 
And  if  the  above  interpretation  is  not  the  true 
interpretation  of  this  text,  then  I  must  just  admit 
to  you  in  the  very  words  of  St.  Augustine — '  I 
confess  that  I  am  entirely  in  the  dark  as  to  what 
the  Apostle  meant  when  he  wrote  this  chapter.' 
Only,  I  will  add  this.  Unless  Paul  contradicts  me 
himself,  not  all  his  commentators  on  the  face  of 
the  earth  will  ever  convince  me  that  this  seventh 
of  the  Romans  is  not  to  be  taken  seriously,  but  is 
to  be  taken  as  filled  with  the  spiritual  experiences 
of  a  man  of  straw. 

Now  this  is  another  sure  rule  of  interpretation 
that  whatsoever  things  were  written  aforetime 
were  written  for  our  learning,  that  we  through 
patience  and  comfort  of  the  Scriptures  might  have 
hope.  And  eminently  to  my  mind  the  seventh 
of  the  Romans  was  written  that  those  who  need 
the  very  greatest  patience  and  the  very  strongest 
comfort  and  consolation,  may  have  all  that  here. 
And  in  this  way.  If  even  Paul  was  sold  under 
sin  :  if  even  Paul  when  writing  the  Romans  was 
still  carnal :  if  he  that  very  day  had  said  and  done 
and  thought  and  felt  what  he  would  not  if  he 
could  have  helped  it :  if  he  hated  himself  for  what 
came  up  upon  him  out  of  his  heart  even  with  his 
inspired  pen  in  his  hand  :  if  sin  still  dwelt  in  him, 
till  in  his  flesh  there  dwelt  no  good  thing :  and,  then, 
if  we  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward  man, 
as  he  did  :  even  if  we  find  another  law,  as  we  every 
132 


AS  SOLD  UNDER  SIN 

moment  do  find  it,  warring  against  the  law  of 
our  mind,  and  bringing  us  into  captivity  to  the 
law  of  sin,  till  we  cry  without  ceasing,  O  wretched 
man  that  I  am  !  and  if  all  the  time  we  thank  God 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  and  walk  not  after 
the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit  till  there  is  there- 
fore no  condemnation  to  us — if  all  that  is  so,  I 
would  like  you  to  tell  me  where  I  can  find  another 
chapter  so  full  of  the  profoundest,  surest,  most 
spiritual,  and  most  experimental,  comfort.  I  have 
not  found  it.  I  do  not  know  it,  much  as  I  need  it. 
No.  In  its  own  wonderful  way  there  is  not  a 
more  comfortable  and  hopeful  Scripture  in  all  the 
Book  of  God  than  this.  And  for  my  part,  I  will 
not  let  any  commentator  of  any  school ;  no,  not 
even  of  my  own  school,  steal  from  me  this  most 
noble,  and  most  divinely  suited,  cordial  for  my 
broken  heart.  As  long  as  I  am  sold  under  sin  I 
will  continue  to  read  continually  this  chapter,  and 
all  its  context-chapters  to  myself,  as  all  sent  not 
to  a  man  made  of  straw,  but  to  a  man  made  of  sin, 
till  he  is  every  day  sold  under  sin.  '  It  was  the 
saying  of  a  good  man,  lately  gone  to  his  rest,  whose 
extended  pilgrimage  was  ninety-three  years,  that 
he  must  often  have  been  swallowed  up  by  despair, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  seventh  chapter  of  Paul's 
Epistle  to  the  Romans.' 

But  if  for  the  comfort  and  consolation  of  some 
men,  this  very  same  Scripture  is  written  for  the 
warning  and  admonition  of  other  men.  And  I 
accordingly  admonish  you,  as  many  as  need  this 
admonition,  and  will  take  it  at  my  hands,  not  to 

133 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

flatter  and  deceive  yourselves  because  you  are  not  yet 
sold  under  sin.  '  Don't  speak  to  me,'  said  Duncan 
Matheson  on  the  market- square  of  Huntly  to  David 
Elginbrod,  '  I  am  a  rotten  hypocrite.'  '  Ah, 
Duncan  man,'  said  old  David,  laying  his  hand  on 
his  friend's  shoulder,  '  they  never  say  Fauch  !  i'  the 
grave.'  And  Holy  Writ  itself  says  that  where  no 
oxen  are,  the  crib  is  clean.  My  brother,  do  not 
boast  that  you  do  not  know  what  it  is  to  be  sold 
under  sin,  and  that  you  do  not  believe  it  about 
Paul  either.  A  born  slave,  with  a  slave's  heart, 
and  a  slave's  habits,  never  complains  that  he  is  a 
slave.  He  knows  nothing  else.  He  knows  nothing 
better.  He  wishes  nothing  more  than  that  his 
ear  be  bored  for  ever  to  his  master's  door.  Only 
a  free-born,  and  a  nobly-born,  man,  and  a  man  who 
has  been  carried  away  captive,  ever  cries  continually, 
O  wretched  man  that  I  am  !  The  Talmud- men 
denied  the  sinfulness  of  their  sinful  hearts  as  in- 
dignantly as  any  of  you  can  deny  yours.  And  they 
interpreted  the  sixty- sixth  Psalm  to  their  scholars 
in  the  same  way  that  some  commentators  interpret 
the  seventh  of  the  Romans.  '  If  I  regard  iniquity 
in  my  heart  only,  then  the  Lord  will  pass  it  by,  and 
will  not  regard  it,'  so  they  taught  their  scholars. 

But  to  return  once  more  to  the  inexhaustible 
comfort  of  this  text,  and  then  close.  There  is  no 
shame  and  no  pain  in  all  this  world  of  shame  and 
pain  for  one  moment  to  compare  with  the  shame 
and  the  pain  of  the  seventh  of  the  Romans,  as  you 
do  not  need  me  to  tell  you,  if  you  have  that  pain 
and  shame  in  your  own  heart.     But  lift  up  your 

134 


AS  SOLD  UNDER  SIN 

head,  for  it  is  to  you  and  not  to  any  other  man, 
that  God  speaks  in  His  holy  prophet  and  says  : 
'  For  your  shame  you  shall  have  double.  And 
for  your  confusion  of  face  you  shall  yet  rejoice  in 
your  portion.  Therefore  in  your  land  you  shall 
possess  the  double,  and  everlasting  joy  shall  be 
unto  you."  Agrippa  was  shut  up  in  a  cruel  and 
shameful  prison  for  Gaius's  sake ;  but  no  sooner 
did  Gaius  ascend  the  throne  than  he  had  his  friend 
instantly  released  and  conferred  upon  him  an  office 
both  of  riches  and  renown.  Moreover  Gaius  pre- 
sented Agrippa  with  a  chain  of  gold  of  double  the 
weight  with  the  chain  of  iron  that  he  had  worn  in 
the  prison  for  Gaius's  sake.  And  so  has  Paul's 
Emperor  done  long  ago  to  Paul.  And  so  will  He 
do  before  very  long  to  you.  To  you,  that  is,  who 
are  now  sold  under  sin  for  His  sake.  You  will 
soon  hear  His  voice  speaking  in  anger  to  your 
jailors  at  your  prison  door  and  saying  how  dis- 
pleased He  is  over  all  your  affliction.  And  He 
will  bring  you  forth  with  His  own  hand  like 
Gaius ;  and  for  all  your  shame  and  pain  He  will 
bestow  upon  you  double,  with  a  chain  of  salvation 
round  your  neck  that  will  make  you  forget  all  the 
sad  years  of  your  sold  captivity. 

He  comes  the  prisoners  to  release 

In  Satan's  bondage  held^ 
The  gates  of  brass  before  him  burst. 

The  iron  fetters  yield. 


135 


XIII 
PAUL'S  BLAMELESSNESS  AS  A  MINISTER 

MOMUS  himself  could  have  found  no  fault 
with  Paul.  Momus  found  fault  with 
everybody,  with  one  exception.  But  had  he  lived 
in  PauPs  day  Paul  would  surely  have  been  a  second 
exception  to  the  universal  fault-finding.  For  Paul 
so  magnified  his  ministry ;  he  so  gave  himself  up 
to  his  ministry;  he  so  laboured  in  season  and  out 
of  season  in  his  ministry ;  and  above  all  he  so 
pleased  all  men  in  all  things  for  their  good  to  edi- 
fication ;  he  so  went  about  doing  good  and  giving 
none  offence  that  he  lifted  both  his  ministry  and 
himself  clear  up  far  above  all  the  fault-finding  of 
all  fair-minded  men.  So  much  so  that  Paul  stands 
next  to  our  Divine  Master  Himself  as  a  blameless 
model  for  all  ministers,  as  well  as  for  all  other  men 
of  God.  And  both  his  own  ministry  and  that  of 
all  his  successors  were  so  much  on  PauPs  mind, 
that  in  every  new  Epistle  of  his  he  has  given  us 
something  fresh  and  forcible  as  to  how  all  ministers 
are  to  attain  to  a  blameless  ministry,  till  they  shall 
be  able  to  give  a  good  account  of  their  ministry, 
first  to  their  people,  and  then  to  their  Master. 

Now,  immediately   following  the   text   and    in- 
tended to  illustrate  and  to  enforce  the  text,  Paul 

137 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

lays  down  a  remarkable  map ;  it  is  a  whole  atlas 
indeed  of  all  his  past  ministry.  A  moral  and 
spiritual  atlas,  that  is.  It  is  not  a  chartographer's 
atlas  of  all  the  parishes  and  presbyteries  and 
synods  in  which  Paul  has  lived  and  laboured.  It 
is  far  more  interesting  and  far  more  profitable  to 
us  than  that.  For  it  is  nothing  less  than  a  faith- 
ful and  feeling  panorama  of  all  the  outstanding 
states  of  mind  and  passions  of  heart  that  he  and 
his  successive  congregations  had  come  through 
while  he  lived  and  laboured  among  them.  The 
publisher  of  Thomas  Boston's  autobiography  has 
lately  given  us  an  excellently-scaled  and  a  most 
eloquent  map  of  the  parish  of  Ettrick.  On  that 
impressive  sheet  we  are  shown  the  situation  of 
the  church  and  the  manse ;  the  farm-towns  where 
all  Thomas  Boston's  elders  lived  who  had  a  brow 
for  a  good  cause ;  the  hamlets  also  where  he  held 
his  district  prayer- meetings,  and  so  on.  And 
every  inch  of  that  minute  map  is  a  study  of  the 
foremost  importance  and  impressiveness  for  all  the 
parish  ministers  of  Scotland.  But  Paul's  pastoral 
map  bites  far  deeper,  and  with  far  sharper  teeth, 
into  every  minister's  conscience  than  even  Boston's 
mordant  map  will  bite,  though  it  is  warranted  to 
draw  ordained  blood  also.  Paul  does  not  engrave 
topographically  indeed  all  the  cities,  and  all  the 
synagogues,  and  all  the  workshops,  in  which  he  had 
lived  and  laboured.  But  he  lays  down  with  the 
greatest  art  the  latitudes  and  the  longitudes  of 
all  his  trials,  and  temptations,  and  tumults  as  a 
minister.      Instead  of  saying  to  us  here  is  Philippi, 

138 


BLAMELESSNESS  AS  A  MINISTER 

and  here  is  Ephesus,  and  here  is  Corinth,  and  so 
on  :  Paul  says  to  us,  here  were  afflictions,  and  here 
were  necessities,  and  here  were  troubles  on  every 
side.  And  just  as  in  Thomas  Boston's  parish 
there  are  pillars  and  crosses  set  up  to  mark  and  to 
record  to  all  time  in  Scotland  his  great  victories 
won  over  himself,  and  his  corresponding  victories 
won  over  his  people ;  so  does  Paul  set  up  this  and 
that  great  stone  of  ministerial  remembrance  and 
has  had  these  instructive  things  engraved  upon  it : 
'  by  pureness,  by  knowledge,  by  long-suffering,  by 
kindness,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  love  unfeigned, 
by  the  word  of  truth,  by  the  power  of  God,  by 
the  armour  of  righteousness  on  the  right  hand  and 
on  the  left.'  There  are  able  and  devoted  divinity- 
students  here  to-night  who  look  forward  before 
very  long  to  have  a  church  and  a  manse  and  a 
pulpit  and  a  people  of  their  own.  What  would 
you  say,  for  a  relaxation  some  day  soon  after  the 
session  is  over,  to  make  a  real  geographical  map  of 
all  the  places  where  Paul  was  a  preacher  and  a 
pastor ;  and  then  to  distribute  beside  those  sacred 
sites  all  the  afflictions,  all  the  necessities,  all  the  dis- 
tresses, all  the  imprisonments,  all  the  tumults,  and 
all  the  labours  of  the  text.  And  then  on  the  other 
side  of  the  sacred  site,  the  pureness,  the  knowledge, 
the  patience,  and  suchlike,  by  all  of  which  your 
great  forerunner  and  example-minister  came  out  of 
it  all  having  given  offence  in  nothing,  but  with  an 
everlastingly  honoured  name.  Such  an  exercise, 
taken  in  time,  and  laid  to  heart  in  time,  would 
surely  help  you  to  take  in  hand  some  hitherto 

139 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

unheard-of  parish  in  Scotland,  so  as  to  make  it  an 
Anwoth,  or  an  Ettrick,  or  suchlike.  There  are 
hundreds  of  parishes  in  Scotland  up  to  this  day 
absolutely  nameless,  but  to  some  one  of  which 
some  one  of  you  may  yet  marry  your  name  for 
ever,  till  your  parish  and  you  shall  shine  together 
for  generations  to  come,  like  the  brightness  of  the 
firmament,  and  as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever. 
You  still  have  it  in  your  own  hands  to-night  to  do 
that.  But  in  a  short  time  it  will  be  too  late  for 
you  also.  Go,  my  sons,  in  God's  name  and  in 
God's  strength,  determined,  as  much  as  in  you  lies, 
to  give  your  happy  people  disappointment  in  no- 
thing, and  offence  in  nothing,  till  their  children 
shall  bury  your  dust  in  your  own  churchyard,  amid 
the  lamentations  of  the  whole  country-side,  and 
shall  write  it  over  your  dust  that  you  were  abso- 
lutely another  Apostle  Paul  to  them,  both  in  your 
preaching  of  Christ  crucified,  and  in  your  adorning 
of  that  doctrine. 

*  In  tumults,'  is  Paul's  own  specially  inserted 
expression ;  it  is  his  own  most  feeling  and  most 
expressive  description,  for  long  periods  and  for 
wide  spaces  of  his  apostolic  life.  'In  tumults,' 
he  says  with  special  emphasis.  Now  we  all  know 
in  what  New  Testament  books,  and  in  what  pain- 
ful chapters  of  those  books,  all  those  tumults  are 
written.  But  it  would  be  no  profit  to  us  to  go 
back  to-night  on  Paul's  tumults,  unless  it  were  in 
order  that  we  might  the  better  lay  our  own 
tumults  alongside  of  his,  and  lay  ourselves  in  our 
tumults,  alongside  of  Paul  in  his  tumults.  Well, 
140 


BLAMELESSNESS  AS  A  MINISTER 

then,  come  away,  and  let  us  do  that.  Come 
away,  and  let  us  speak  plainly.  What,  then, 
have  some  of  our  tumults  been,  yours  and 
mine,  as  minister  and  people,  since  we  first 
knew  one  another  ?  Was  it  Disestablishment  ? 
Was  it  Home  Rule  ?  Was  it  some  heresy  case  ? 
Was  it  the  Declaratory  Act  ?  Was  it  the  Union  ? 
Was  it  hymns,  or  organs,  or  standing  at  singing  ? 
or  was  it  something  else  so  utterly  parochial,  and 
petty,  and  paltry,  that  nobody,  but  you  and  I, 
could  possibly  have  made  a  tumult  out  of  it  ? 
Now  whatever  our  tumult  was,  how  did  we  behave 
ourselves  in  it  ?  What  are  our  calm  thoughts 
about  it,  and  about  ourselves  in  it,  now  that  it  is 
all  over  ?  However  it  may  be  with  you  and  me,  it 
is  certain  that  some  men  have  gone  to  judgment, 
out  of  those  very  same  tumults,  with  everlasting 
shame  on  their  heads.  How  then  do  we  stand  in 
this  matter  of  blame  and  shame  ?  And  blame  and 
shame  or  no,  are  we  any  wiser  men,  and  any  better 
men  to-day  because  of  those  tumults  ?  Or  after 
all  our  lessons  are  we  just  as  ready  for  another 
tumult,  and  as  ill-prepared  for  it  as  ever  we  were  .'* 
Are  we  just  as  ill-read,  and  as  ill-natured,  and  as 
prejudiced,  and  as  hot-headed,  and  as  full  of  pride 
and  self-importance,  as  ever  we  were  ?  What  do 
you  think  ?  What  do  you  feel  ?  What  do  you 
say  ?  You  must  surely  see  now,  as  you  look  back, 
what  a  splendid  school  for  Christian  character,  and 
for  Christian  conduct,  all  those  tumults  were  fitted, 
and  were  intended  of  God,  to  be  to  you.  Well 
then,  how   do  you   think   you  have  come  out  of 

141 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

those  great  years  in  those  great  and  costly 
schools  ?  Has  your  temper  and  your  character 
come  out  of  those  terrible  furnaces  like  gold 
tried  in  the  fire  ?  For,  all  those  tumults,  what- 
ever you  may  have  made  of  them,  and  they  of 
you,  they  were  all  intended  to  be  but  means  to  a 
far  greater  end  than  their  own  end.  That  is  to 
say,  they  were  all  intended  to  test  and  try  and 
prove  you  and  me  as  both  ministers  and  men  of 
God,  and  that  by  the  only  proof  we  can  give  to 
God  or  man.  The  proof,  that  is,  of  patience,  and 
purity  of  motive,  and  sufficient  knowledge,  and 
long-suffering,  and  love  unfeigned,  and  the  word  of 
truth,  and  the  power  of  God.  And  to  show  to 
all  men,  as  Paul  did,  that  we  have  not  received 
the  grace  of  God  in  vain ;  because,  amid  our 
greatest  tumults,  we  have  given  offence  in  nothing, 
and  in  nothing  has  our  ministry  been  to  be 
blamed. 

My  brethren,  you  are  not  ministers,  thank  God 
for  that.  But  you  will  let  your  ministers  tell  you 
what  is  in  their  hearts  concerning  you,  and  con- 
cerning themselves,  as  they  read  this  too-proud 
chapter  of  Paul's.  If  you  were  all  ministers  I 
would  go  on  to  say  in  your  name,  and  you  would 
agree  with  me,  as  to  what  a  cruel  chapter  this  is. 
For  once — what  a  heartless  chapter  !  Was  it  not 
enough  for  Paul  that  he  should  enjoy  his  own 
good  conscience  as  a  minister,  but  he  must  make 
my  conscience  even  more  miserable  than  it  was 
before  ?  What  delight  can  it  give  him  to  pour 
all  this  condemnation  and  contempt  upon  me  and 
142 


BLAMELESSNESS  AS  A  MINISTER 

my  ministry  ?  Did  he  not  know,  did  he  not  take 
time  to  consider,  that  he  was  trampling  upon 
multitudes  of  broken  hearts  ?  I  wonder  at  Paul. 
In  so  scourging  the  proud-hearted  and  uplifted 
Corinthians  he  must  have  forgotten  all  us  poor 
ministers,  who,  to  all  time,  would  read  his  blame- 
less and  boasted  ministry,  only  to  be  utterly 
crushed  by  it.  It  was  not  like  Paul  to  glory  over 
us  in  that  way.  But  let  us  recollect  ourselves,  and 
say  that  it  is  all  right.  It  is  not  for  such  as  we 
are  to  be  pufFed-up,  or  even  to  be  easy-minded,  or 
to  be  anything  else  but  bruised,  and  broken,  and 
full  of  the  severest  self-blame.  And,  therefore, 
we  will  go  back  upon  the  ruins  of  our  ministry 
with  this  self-condemning  chapter  in  our  hands, 
and  will  recall  the  tumults  that  so  wounded  the 
Church  of  Christ,  and  so  many  hearts  in  her,  and 
all  the  unpardonable  part  we  took  in  those 
tumults,  that  would  never  have  been  what  they 
were  had  we  not  been  in  them.  Our  offences 
without  number  also  in  our  very  pulpits.  Oh,  my 
brethren,  the  never-to-be-redeemed  opportunities 
of  our  pulpits ;  and  the  lasting  blame  of  God  and 
our  people,  and  our  own  consciences,  for  our 
misuse  and  neglect  of  our  pulpits !  Rock  of 
Ages,  cleft  for  ministers  !  The  *  unedifying  con- 
verse '  of  our  pastorate,  and  so  on  :  till  we  take 
up  this  terrible  chapter,  and  read  it  continually, 
deploring  before  God  and  man,  to  our  dying  day, 
all  that  Paul  was,  and  that  we  were  not :  and  all 
that  he  was  not,  and  that  we  were.  But,  with  all 
that  is  for  ever  lost,  there  is  one  thing  left  that 

143 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

we  shall  every  day  do ;  and  a  thing  that  Paul  did 
not  do,  on  that  day  at  any  rate,  when  he  wrote 
this  proud  chapter.  We  shall  every  day  walk 
about  amid  the  ruins  of  our  past  ministry,  and 
shall  say  over  it — Out  of  the  depths  have  I  cried 
unto  Thee,  O  Lord.  If  Thou,  O  Lord,  shouldest 
mark  iniquity,  0  Lord,  who  shall  stand  !  Deliver 
me  from  blood-guiltiness,  O  God,  Thou  God  of 
my  salvation ;  then  will  I  teach  transgressors  Thy 
ways ;  and  sinners  shall  be  converted  unto  Thee. 
There  is  always  that  left  to  us,  and  that  is  better 
for  us,  and  far  more  becoming  in  us,  than  the  most 
blameless  ministry. 

Thomas  Goodwin,  that  great  minister,  tells  us 
that  always  when  he  was  tempted  to  be  high- 
minded  and  to  forget  to  fear,  he  was  wont  to  go 
back  and  take  a  turn  up  and  down  in  his  unre- 
generate  state.  Now,  your  ministers  do  not  need 
to  go  so  far  back  as  that.  All  that  we  need  to 
do  is  to  open  a  few  pages  of  our  communion -rolls 
and  visiting-books,  and  a  short  turn  up  and  down 
those  painful  sheets,  with  some  conscience,  and 
some  heart,  and  some  imagination,  will  always 
make  high-mindedness,  and  self-esteem,  for  ever 
impossible  to  us.  You  do  not  need  to  keep  up 
our  faults  and  failures  and  offences  against  us,  for 
we  never  forget  them  for  a  single  day.  You  may 
safely  forgive  us,  for  we  shall  never  in  this  world 
forgive  ourselves.  How  could  we?  No  other 
man  can  possibly  have  such  a  retrospect  of  faults 
and  failures  and  offences  as  a  minister.  It  is 
impossible.  The  seventh  of  the  Romans  has  been 
144 


BLAMELESSNESS  AS  A  MINISTER 

called  the  greatest  tragedy  that  ever  was  written 
in  Greek  or  in  English.  If  that  is  so,  some  of  our 
communion-rolls  and  pastoral-visitation  books  are 
not  far  behind  it.  For  the  supreme  tragedy  of 
his  own  sad  ministry  is  all  written  there  by  each 
remorseful  minister's  own  hand.  And  such  tragic 
things  are  written,  or,  rather,  are  secretly  ciphered 
there,  as  to  raise  both  pity,  and  fear,  and  terror, 
to  all  ministers,  enough  to  suffice  them  for  all  their 
days  on  earth. 

Now,  you  may  well  think  that  Paul  has  left 
nothing  at  all  for  you  to-night,  but  for  ministers 
only.  Well,  take  this,  as  if  Paul  himself  had  said 
it.  Find  as  little  fault  with  your  ministers  as  is 
possible.  Blame  them  as  little  as  you  can,  even 
when  they  are  not  wholly  blameless.  It  is  not 
good  for  yourself  to  do  it,  and  it  is  not  good  for 
your  children  to  hear  you  doing  it.  Be  like 
Bacon's  uncle  with  his  family  :  reprehend  them  in 
private  and  praise  them  in  public.  That  is  to 
say,  if  you  have  a  minister  who  will  take  repre- 
hension, either  in  public  or  in  private,  at  your 
hands.  But,  even  when  it  must  be  done,  do  it 
with  regret  and  with  reverence.  Be  careful  not  to 
humiliate  your  minister  overmuch.  I  am  sure  you 
will  never  intentionally  insult  him,  however  much 
you  may  have  to  remonstrate  with  him.  I  admit 
that  this  lesson  is  not  literally  within  the  four 
corners  of  the  text,  but  it  is  not  very  far  away 
from  it. 

And  there  is  this  also  about  offences,  and  fault- 
findings, and  in  a  far  wider  field  than  the  ministry 

K  145 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

merely.  It  is  very  humbling,  when  once  we  begin 
to  discover  it,  that  our  very  existence  is  an  offence 
to  so  many  men.  We  are  like  a  stumbling-stone  in 
their  way :  they  fall  on  us  and  are  broken,  even  when 
they  could  not  explain  or  justify  why  that  should 
be  so ;  while  sometimes,  again,  our  ofFensiveness 
will  only  be  too  easily  explained  both  to  them  and 
to  ourselves.  But,  at  other  times,  they  will  need 
to  go  down  into  their  own  hearts  for  the  real  root 
of  all  this  bitterness.  And,  then,  when  they  do 
that,  you  will  not  be  much  more  troubled  with 
your  ofFensiveness  to  them,  or  with  their  hostility 
to  you.  At  the  same  time,  walk  you  softly,  as 
long  as  you  are  in  this  life.  It  is  a  dreadful 
thing  to  be  the  cause,  guilty  or  innocent,  of 
another  man"*s  stumbles  and  falls.  '  Love  to  be 
well  out  of  sight,'  was  the  motto  of  more  than 
one  of  the  great  saints.  And,  though  that  does 
not  sound  at  first  sight  like  great  saintliness,  yet 
it  is.  There  are  few  better  evidences  of  great  and 
sure  saintship,  than  just  to  'seek  obscurity'  for 
such  reasons  as  the  above.  Keep  out  of  people's 
eyes,  and  ears,  and  feet,  and  tongues  then,  as 
much  as  you  can,  and  as  long  as  you  continue  to 
cause  so  many  men  to  stumble,  and  to  fall,  and  to 
be  broken  over  you. 

And,  then,  both  ministers,  and  all  manner  of 
men,  never  allow  yourselves  to  answer  again,  when 
you  are  blamed.  Never  defend  yourself.  Let  them 
reprehend  you,  in  private  or  in  public,  as  much  as 
they  please.  Let  the  righteous  smite  you :  it 
shall  be  a  kindness :  and  let  him  reprove  you : 
146 


BLAMELESSNESS  AS  A  MINISTER 

it  shall  be  an  excellent  oil,  which  shall  not  break 
your  head.  Never  so  much  as  explain  your  mean- 
ing, under  any  invitation  or  demand  whatsoever. 
They  just  wish  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  you,  and 
you  have  something  else  to  do.  Now,  I  always 
like  to  seal  down  such  a  great  lesson  as  this  by 
some  great  name.  A  great  name  impresses  the 
most  hardened  hearer.  And  I  will  seal  down  this 
great  lesson  by  this  out  of  a  truly  great  name. 
'  It  is  a  mark  of  the  deepest  and  truest  humility,' 
says  a  great  saint,  'to  see  ourselves  condemned 
without  cause,  and  to  be  silent  under  it.  To  be 
silent  under  insult  and  wrong  is  a  very  noble 
imitation  of  our  Lord.  0  my  Lord,  when  I 
remember  in  how  many  ways  Thou  didst  suffer 
detraction  and  misrepresentation,  who  in  no  way 
deserved  it,  I  know  not  where  my  senses  are  when 
I  am  in  such  a  haste  to  defend  and  excuse  myself. 
Is  it  possible  I  should  desire  any  one  to  speak 
any  good  of  me,  or  to  think  it,  when  so  many  ill 
things  were  thought  and  spoken  of  Thee  !  What 
is  this,  Lord :  what  do  we  imagine  to  get  by 
pleasing  worms,  or  by  being  praised  by  creeping 
things  !  What  about  being  blamed  by  all  men,  if 
only  we  stand  at  last  blameless  before  Thee  ' ' 


147 


XIV 
PAUL  AS   AN   EVANGELICAL   MYSTIC 

THE  two  words  *  mystical '  and  '  mysterious  "• 
mean,  very  much,  the  same  thing.  Not 
only  so,  but  at  bottom  '  mystical '  and  '  mysterious ' 
are  very  much  the  very  same  words.  Like  two 
sister  stems,  these  two  expressions  spring  up  out 
of  one  and  the  same  seminal  root.  Now,  as  to 
mysticism.  There  are  more  kinds  of  mysticism 
than  one  in  the  world.  There  is  speculative 
mysticism,  and  there  is  theosophical  mysticism, 
and  there  is  devotional  mysticism,  and  so  on.  But 
to  us  there  is  only  one  real  mysticism.  And  that 
is  the  evangelical  mysticism  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 
And  that  mysticism  is  just  the  profound  mysterious- 
ness  of  the  spiritual  life,  as  that  life  was  first 
created  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  Jesus  Christ,  and 
will  for  ever  be  possessed  by  Jesus  Christ  as  His 
own  original  life ;  and  then  as  it  will  for  ever  be 
conveyed  from  Him  down  to  all  His  mystical 
members. 

Now,  to  begin  with,  Christ  Himself  is  the  great 
mystery  of  godliness.  Almighty  God  never 
designed  nor  decreed  nor  executed  anything  in 
eternity  or  in  time,  to  compare,  for  one  moment, 

149 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

for  mysteriousness,  with  Christ.  All  the  mysteries 
of  creation, — and  creation  is  as  full  as  it  can  hold 
of  all  kinds  of  mysteries :  all  the  mysteries  of 
grace,  —  and  grace  is  full  of  its  own  proper 
mysteries  also  :  yet,  all  are  plain  and  easy  to  be 
understood,  compared  with  the  all-surpassing 
mystery  of  Christ.  Ever  since  Christ  was  set 
forth  among  men  the  best  intellects  in  the  world 
have  all  been  working  on  the  mystery  of  Christ. 
And,  though  they  have  found  out  enough  of  that 
mystery  for  their  own  salvation,  yet  they  all  agree 
to  tell  us  that  there  are  heights  and  depths  of 
mystery  in  Christ  past  all  finding  out.  Christ, 
then,  that  so  mysterious  Person  who  fills  the 
Gospels  and  the  Epistles  with  His  wonderful 
words  and  works, — What  think  ye  of  Christ  ? 
Paul  tells  us  in  every  epistle  of  his  what  he  thinks 
of  Christ,  and  it  is  this  deep,  spiritual,  experi- 
mental, and  only  soul-saving,  knowledge  that  Paul 
has  of  Christ,  it  is  this  that  justifies  us  in  calling 
him  the  first  and  the  best  of  all  mystics ;  the 
evangelical  and  true  mystic :  the  only  mystic 
indeed,  worthy,  for  one  moment,  to  bear  that 
deep  and  noble  name. 

When  you  take  to  reading  the  best  books  you 
will  be  sure  to  come  continually  on  such  strange 
descriptions  and  expressions  as  these :  Christ 
mystical ;  Christ  our  mystical  Head  ;  Christ  our 
mystical  Root ;  the  mystical  Union  of  Christ  with 
all  true  believers ;  the  mystical  Identity  of  Christ 
with  all  true  believers,  —  and  suchlike  strange 
expressions.  But,  already,  all  these  deep  doctrines 
150 


AS  AN  EVANGELICAL  MYSTIC 

and  strange  expressions  of  evangelical  mysticism 
are  to  be  found  in  the  deep  places  of  Paul :  and, 
in  his  measure,  in  the  deep  places  of  John  also ; 
and  that  because  those  two  apostles,  first  of  all 
spiritually- minded  men,  discovered  all  these  mys- 
terious and  mystical  matters  in  their  Master. 
Ere  ever  we  are  aware  we  ourselves  are  mystics 
already  as  soon  as  we  begin  to  read  in  John  about 
the  Living  Bread,  and  the  True  Vine  ;  and  in  Paul 
about  the  Head  of  the  Church  and  His  indwelling 
in  us.  But  Paul,  after  his  grand  manner,  goes  on 
to  show  us  that  Christ  is  not  the  only  mystical 
Head  that  this  so  mystically- constituted  world  of 
ours  has  seen.  First  and  last,  as  that  great  evan- 
gelical and  speculative  mystic  has  had  it  revealed 
to  him,  there  have  been  two  mystical  Heads  set 
over  the  human  race.  Our  first  mystical  Head 
was  Adam,  and  our  second  mystical  Head  is  Christ. 
Speaking  mystically,  says  the  most  mystical  of  the 
Puritans,  there  are  only  two  Men  who  stand  before 
God ;  the  first  and  the  second  Adam  ;  and  these 
two  public  Men  have  all  us  private  men  hanging 
at  their  great  girdles.  But,  all  the  time,  above 
Adam, and  before  Adam,  and  only  waiting  till  Adam 
had  shipwrecked  his  headship  and  all  who  were  in  it 
with  him,  stood  the  second  Adam  ready  to  restore 
that  He  had  not  taken  away.  And  Paul  so  sets 
all  that  forth  in  doctrine,  and  in  doxology,  and  in 
gospel  invitation  and  assurance,  that  the  Church 
of  Christ  in  her  gratitude  to  Paul  has  given  him 
this  great  name  of  her  first  and  her  most  evan- 
gelical mystic.      *  And  hath  put  all  things  under 

151 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

His  feet,'  proclaims  the  great  mystic,  'and  gave 
Him  to  be  the  Head  over  all  things  to  the  Church, 
which  is  His  body.'  And  again,  '  Him  which  is 
the  Head,  even  Christ,  in  whom  the  whole  body 
maketh  increase  unto  the  edifying  of  itself  in  love.' 
And  again,  '  And  He  is  the  Head  of  the  body  : 
for  it  pleased  the  Father  that  in  Him  should  all 
fulness  dwell.' 

But  while  Paul  has  many  magnificent  things  to 
teach  us  about  the  mystical  Headship  of  Christ 
over  His  Church,  at  the  same  time,  it  is  the 
mystical  union  of  Christ  with  each  individual 
believer,  and  each  individual  believer's  mystical 
union  with  Christ, — it  is  this  that  completes  and 
crowns  Paul's  evangelical  doctrine  and  kindles  his 
most  rapturous  adoration.  And  all  that  is  so, 
because  all  Paul's  preaching  is  so  profoundly 
experimental.  Paul  has  come  through  all  that  he 
preaches.  Goodwin,  that  so  mystical  and  so 
evangelical  Puritan,  says  that  all  the  'apostolical 
and  primitive  language  was  at  once  mystical  and 
experimental.'  But  there  is  a  more  primitive  and 
a  more  experimental  and  a  more  mystical  language 
than  even  the  apostolical.  '  I  am  the  bread  of 
life :  he  that  cometh  to  Me  shall  never  hunger ; 
and  he  that  believeth  in  Me  shall  never  thirst. 
This  is  the  bread  that  cometh  down  from  heaven, 
that  a  man  may  eat  thereof  and  not  die.  Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you,  except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of 
the  Son  of  Man  and  drink  His  blood,  ye  have  no 
life  in  you.'  As  also  in  our  Lord's  so  mystical 
and  so  beautiful  parable  of  the  true  vine  and  its 
152 


AS  AN  EVANGELICAL  MYSTIC 

true  branches.  And  then  in  the  next  generation, 
Paul  comes  forward  with  his  own  so  profound 
experience  of  all  that,  and  with  his  own  so  first- 
hand witness  to  all  that,  in  such  sealing  and 
crowning  testimonies  and  attestations  as  these : — 
'  I  live,  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me  :  and 
the  life  I  now  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live  by  the  faith 
of  the  Son  of  God.'  And,  again,  '  To  me  to  live 
is  Christ,  and  to  die  is  gain,'  and  so  on  in  all  his 
epistles.  Paul  has  so  eaten  the  flesh  and  has  so 
drunk  the  blood  of  Christ :  he  has  been  of  the 
Father  so  engrafted  into  Christ,  that  he  possesses 
within  himself  the  very  same  life  that  is  possessed 
by  the  risen  Christ.  The  very  identical  life  that 
is  in  Christ  glorified  is  already  in  Paul,  amid  all 
his  corruptions,  temptations,  and  tribulations. 
There  are  very  different  degrees  of  that  life,  to  be 
sure,  in  Christ  and  in  Paul ;  but  it  is  the  very 
same  kind  of  life.  There  is  not  one  kind  of 
spiritual  life  in  Christ,  and  an  altogether  different 
kind  of  spiritual  life  in  Paul.  The  same  sap  that 
is  in  the  vine  is  in  the  branch.  The  same  life 
that  is  in  the  head  is  in  the  member.  But  that 
is  not  all.  Amazing  as  all  that  is,  that  is  far 
from  being  all.  The  riches  that  are  treasured  up 
in  Christ  are  absolutely  unsearchable.  For  Paul 
is  not  content  to  say  that  he  has  in  his  own  heart 
the  identical  and  very  same  life  that  is  in  Christ's 
heart :  Paul  is  bold  enough  to  go  on  to  say  that 
he  actually  has  Christ  Himself  dwelling  in  his  very 
heart.  I, — you  and  I, — have  in  our  hearts  the 
very   same   life   that   was   in  Adam,  with   all   its 

153 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

deadly  infection  and  dreadful  pollution ;  but, 
identified  with  Adam  as  we  are,  Adam  does  not 
really  and  actually  dwell  in  our  hearts.  We  still 
inherit  the  '  fair  patrimony '  that  he  left  us ;  but, 
I  for  one,  both  hope  and  believe,  that  Adam  has 
escaped  that  patrimony  himself.  At  any  rate, 
wherever  Adam  dwells,  he  does  not  dwell  in  our 
hearts.  But  the  second  Adam  is  so  constituted 
for  us,  and  we  are  so  constituted  for  Him,  that 
He,  in  the  most  real  and  actual  manner,  and 
without  any  figure  of  speech  whatever,  dwells  in 
us.  Indeed,  with  all  reverence,  and  with  all 
spiritual  understanding,  let  it  be  said,  Christ  has 
no  choice ;  He  has  nowhere  else  to  dwell.  If 
Christ  is  really  to  dwell,  to  be  called  dwelling, 
anywhere,  it  must  be  in  Paul's  heart,  and  in  your 
heart,  and  in  my  heart.  Christ  is  so  mystical  and 
mysterious :  He  is  so  unlike  any  one  else  in  heaven 
or  earth  :  He  is  such  an  unheard-of  mystery,  that 
He  has  three  dwelling-places.  To  begin  with,  He 
is  the  Son  of  God  ;  and  as  the  Son  of  God  He 
dwells  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  Him. 
And,  then,  ever  since  His  Incarnation,  He  has 
been  the  Son  of  Man  also.  And  as  the  Son  of 
Man,  and  ever  since  His  ascension  and  reception. 
He  has  dwelt  in  heaven  as  one  of  God's  glorified 
saints,  and  at  the  head  of  them.  But,  over  and 
above  being  both  Son  of  God  and  Son  of  Man  : 
from  the  mystical  union  of  the  Godhead  and  the 
Manhood  in  His  Divine  Person,  He  is  the  Christ 
also.  And  as  He  is  the  Christ,  He  dwells  in  His 
people,  and  can  dwell  nowhere  else,  in  heaven  or 
154 


AS  AN  EVANGELICAL  MYSTIC 

in  earth,  but  in  His  people.  Christ  mystical  is 
made  up  not  of  the  Head  only,  but  of  the  Head 
and  the  members  taken  together.  And,  as  apart 
from  the  Head  the  members  have  no  life ;  so, 
neither  apart  from  His  members  has  the  Head 
anywhere  to  dwell.  Nay,  apart  from  His  members, 
the  Head  has  no  real  and  proper  existence.  At 
any  rate,  as  Paul  insists,  they  are  His  fulness,  and 
He  is  complete  in  and  by  them  ;  just  as  they 
again  are  complete  in  and  by  Him.  Paul,  and 
you,  and  I,  hung,  originally,  and  in  the  beginning, 
at  Adam's  mystical  girdle,  and  we  have  all  had  to 
take  the  consequences  of  that  mystical  suspension. 
But  now  we  have  all  been  loosened  off  from  Adam, 
and  have  been  united  close  and  inseparably  to 
Christ.  Before  God,  we  all  hang  now  at  Christ's 
mystical  girdle.  Ay,  far  better,  and  far  more 
blessed  than  even  that,  Christ  now  dwells  under 
our  girdle,  and  dwells,  and  can  dwell,  nowhere 
else.  That  is  to  say,  in  simple  and  plain  language, 
He  dwells  in  our  hearts  by  faith  and  love  on  our 
part,  and  by  mystical  incorporation  on  His  part. 
I  am  crucified  with  Christ,  nevertheless  I  live ;  yet 
not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me.  And,  for  this 
cause,  I  bow  my  knees  unto  the  Father  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  Christ  may  dwell  in  your 
hearts  by  faith. 

Now,  as  might  be  looked  for,  a  thousand  things, 
'mystical  and  other,  follow  from  all  that,  and  will, 
to  all  eternity,  follow  from  all  that.  But  take 
one  or  two  things  that  immediately  and  at  once 
follow  from  all  that,  and  so  close  this  meditation. 

155 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

And  first,  the  mystical  union  between  Christ  and 
the  soul  is  so  mysterious  that  it  is  a  great  mystery 
even  to  those  who  are  in  it,  and  share  it.  As 
Walter  Marshall,  one  of  the  greatest  doctors  in 
this  mystery,  has  it  :  '  Yea,'  says  Marshall  in  his 
Gospel  Mystery,  "  though  it  be  revealed  clearly  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  yet  the  natural  man  has  not 
eyes  to  see  it  there.  And  if  God  expresses  it 
never  so  plainly  and  properly,  he  will  still  think 
that  God  is  speaking  in  riddles  and  parables.  And 
I  doubt  not  but  it  is  still  a  riddle,  even  to  many 
truly  godly  men,  who  have  received  a  holy  nature 
from  God  in  this  way.  For  the  apostles  them- 
selves had  the  saving  benefit  of  this  mystery  long 
before  the  Comforter  had  discovered  it  clearly  to 
them.  They  walked  in  Christ  as  the  way  to  the 
Father,  before  they  clearly  knew  Him  to  be  the 
way.  And  the  best  of  us  know  this  mystery  but 
in  part,  and  must  wait  for  the  perfect  knowledge 
of  it  in  another  world.'  So  mysterious  is  this 
mystery  of  godliness. 

But  how,  asks  some  one  honestly  and  anxiously, 
— how  shall  I  ever  become  such  a  miracle  of  divine 
grace  as  to  be  actually,  myself,  a  member  of 
Christ's  mystical  body  ?  Just  begin  at  once  to  be 
one  of  His  members,  and  the  thing  is  done.  Your 
hands  do  not  hang  idle  and  say, — How  shall  we  ever 
do  any  work  ?  Your  feet  do  not  stand  still  and 
say, — How  shall  we  ever  walk  or  run  ?  Nor  your 
eyes,  nor  your  ears.  They  just  begin  to  do,  each, 
their  proper  work,  and  the  moment  they  so  begin, 
your  head  and  your  heart  immediately  send  down 

156 


AS  AN  EVANGELICAL  MYSTIC 

their  virtue  into  your  hands  and  your  feet.  And 
so  is  it  with  the  mystical  Head  and  His  mystical 
members.  Just  begin  to  be  one  of  His  members, 
and  already  you  are  one  of  them.  Believe  that 
you  are  one  of  them,  and  you  shall  be  one  of  them. 
Just  think  about  Christ.  Just  speak  to  Christ. 
Just  lean  upon,  and  look  to  Christ.  Just  go  home 
to-night  and  do  that  deed  of  love,  and  truth,  and 
humility,  and  brotherly-kindness,  and  self-denial,  in 
His  name,  and,  already,  Christ  is  dwelling  in  you, 
and  working  in  you  as  well  as  in  Paul.  Saul  of 
Tarsus  just  said  as  he  lay  among  his  horse's  feet, — 
Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do  ?  and  from 
that  moment  the  thing  was  done. 

Now,  my  brethren,  if  I  have  had  any  success 
to-night  in  setting  forth  Paul  as  an  evangelical 
mystic,  this  also  will  follow  as  one  of  the  many 
fruits  of  my  argument.  This  fine  word  '  mystical ' 
will  henceforth  be  redeemed  in  all  your  minds  from 
all  that  dreaminess,  and  cloudiness,  and  unreality, 
and  unpracticalness,  with  which  it  has  hitherto  been 
associated  in  your  minds.  'Vigour  and  efficacy'  may 
not  have  been  associated  in  many  minds  with  the 
great  mystical  saints,  and  yet  that  is  the  very 
language  that  is  used  concerning  them  by  no  less 
an  authority  than  Dr.  Johnson.  But  just  look  at 
two  or  three  of  the  greatest  evangelical  and  saintly 
mystics  for  yourselves,  and  see  if  the  great  critic 
and  lexicographer  is  not  literally  correct.  Where 
is  there  vigour  and  efficacy  in  all  the  world  like 
the  vigour  and  efficacy  of  the  Apostle  Paul.? 
Where  is  there  less  dreaminess  or  less  cloudiness 

157 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

than  in  Paul  ?  What  a  leader  of  men  he  was ! 
What  a  founder  and  ruler  of  churches  !  What  a 
man  of  business  he  was,  and  that  just  because  of 
his  mystical  oneness  with  Christ.  What  an  incom- 
parably laborious,  efficient,  and  fruitful  life  Paul 
lived  !  What  a  mystical  conversation  with  heaven 
he  kept  up,  combined  with  what  stupendous 
services  on  earth  !  Take  Luther  also.  There  is 
not  a  more  evangelically-mystical  book  in  all  New 
Testament  literature  than  Luther'*s  Galatians. 
And  yet,  or  I  should  rather  say,  and  therefore, 
what  truly  Pauline  vigour  and  efficacy  in  every- 
thing !  And  take  Teresa  and  her  mystical  deacon 
always  at  her  side,  John  of  the  Cross.  I  would 
need  to  be  a  genius  at  coining  right  words  before  I 
could  describe  aright  to  you  that  amazing  woman^s 
statesmanship  and  emperorship  in  life  and  in 
character.  Founding  schools,  selecting  sites, 
negotiating  finances,  superintending  architects  and 
builders  and  gardeners ;  always  in  the  kitchen, 
always  in  the  schoolroom,  always  in  the  oratory, 
always  on  horseback.  A  mother  in  Israel.  A 
queen  among  the  most  queenly  women  in  all  the 
world.  And,  unjust  as  Dr.  Duncan  is  to  William 
Law  our  greatest  English  mystic,  Duncan  is  com- 
pelled to  allow  about  Law  that  *  he  spoke  upon 
the  practical  as  with  the  sound  of  a  trumpet.  In 
practical  appeals  Law  is  a  very  Luther.  Luther 
and  Law  were  Boanerges.'  And,  as  Dr.  Somerville 
says,  from  whose  fine  book  on  Paul  I  have  borrowed 
the  title  of  this  lecture : — '  The  intensity  that 
characterised  the  religious  life  and  experience  of 

158 


AS  AN  EVANGELICAL  MYSTIC 

the  late  General  Gordon,  was  all  due  to  his 
evangelical  mysticism.  All  associated  in  his  case 
also  with  extraordinary  efficiency  in  the  practical 
affairs  of  life  and  in  the  management  of  men.' 
But  why  argue  out  such  remote  and  historical 
instances  when  we  have  it  all  within  ourselves  ? 
Let  any  man  among  ourselves  carry  about  Christ 
in  his  own  heart ;  let  any  man  abide  in  Christ  as 
the  branch  abides  in  the  vine  :  let  any  man  cleave 
as  close  to  Christ  as  a  member  of  our  body  cleaves 
close  to  its  head  :  let  any  man  say  unceasingly 
every  day,  and  in  every  cross  and  temptation  of 
every  day,  *  I  am  crucified  with  Christ :  neverthe- 
less I  live  :  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me ' ; 
and  you  will  be  absolutely  sure  to  find  that  man 
the  most  willing,  the  most  active,  the  most 
practical,  and  the  most  efficient  man  in  every 
kind  of  Christian  work.  In  one  word,  the  more 
evangelically  mystical  any  man  is,  the  more  full 
of  all  vigour  and  all  efficacy  will  that  man  be 
sure  to  be. 


159 


XV 

PAUL'S  GREAT  HEAVINESS  AND  CON- 
TINUAL SORROW  OF  HEART 

PAUL'S  ail-but  complete  blindness  to  the 
beauties  of  nature  and  to  the  attractions 
of  art,  as  well  as  his  ail-but  absolute  indifference 
to  the  classic  sites  and  scenes  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
has  been  often  remarked  on,  and  has  been  often 
lamented  over.  Paul's  utter  insensibility  has  been 
often  set  in  severe  contrast  over  against  our  Lord's 
much-applauded  love  of  nature.  Calvin  also  has 
suffered  no  little  vituperation  for  sitting  all  day 
over  his  Institutes,  and  never  once  lifting  up  his 
eyes  to  give  us  a  description  of  the  Alps  overhead. 
The  prince  of  Scripture  commentators  will  never  be 
forgiven  for  never  having  once  stood  up  in  rapture 
over  the  sun-risings  and  the  sun-settings  on  the 
AJpine  snows.  Pascal  also  has  come  under  the 
same  condemnation  because  he  could  see  no  scenery 
anywhere  much  worth  wondering  at  outside  the 
immortal  soul  of  man.  And  we  are  all  at  one  in 
despising  and  spurning  St.  Bernard  because  he  rode 
a  whole  day  along  the  shores  of  the  lake  of  Geneva 
with  his  monk's  cowl  so  drawn  down  over  his  eyes 

L  i6i 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

that  he  had  to  ask  his  host  at  sunset  where  that 
famous  water  was  which  he  had  heard  so  many 
people  talking  so  much  about.  Now,  I  am  not 
going  to  put  forward  any  defence  or  excuse  of 
mine  for  PauPs  limitations  and  insensibilities.  The 
very  most  I  shall  attempt  to  do  is  to  offer  you 
some  possible  explanation  of  that  great  heaviness 
of  mind,  and  that  great  sorrow  of  heart,  which  has 
lost  Paul  the  full  approval  of  so  many  of  his  best 
friends.  How  was  it  possible  for  Paul  to  travel 
through  those  so  famous  scenes,  how  was  it  possible 
for  him  to  live  in  those  so  classic  cities,  and  never 
to  give  us  a  single  sentence  about  persons  and 
places,  the  very  names  of  which  make  our  modern 
hearts  to  beat  fast  in  our  bosoms  to  this  day  ? 


In  vain  to  me  the  smiling  mornings  shine. 

And  reddening  Phoebus  lifts  his  golden  fire ; 
The  birds  in  vain  their  amorous  descant  join. 

Or  cheerful  fields  resume  their  green  attire. 
These  ears,  alas  !  for  other  notes  repine  ; 

A  different  object  do  these  eyes  require  ; 
My  lonely  anguish  meets  no  heart  but  mine, 

And  in  my  breast  the  imperfect  joys  expire. 


Right  or  wrong  ;  praise  Paul  or  blame  him  ;  try 
to  understand  him,  and  to  feel  with  him  and  for 
him,  or  no  ;  the  thing  is  as  clear  as  day,  that  some 
iron  or  other  has  so  entered  PauPs  soul,  and  an 
iron  such,  that  it  will  never  depart  from  his  soul 
in  this  world.  And,  till  that  rankling  spear-head, 
so  to  call  it,  is  removed  for  ever  out  of  Paul's 
162 


HEAVINESS  AND  SORROW  OF  HEART 

mind  and  heart  in  another  world  than  this,  say 
what  you  will  to  blame  Paul,  he  has  no  ear  left  for 
the  singing  of  your  amorous  birds,  and  no  eye  left 
but  for  that  holy  whiteness  that  so  stains  to  his 
eyes  both  Mount  Salmon  and  Mont  Blanc. 
Master,  said  the  holiday-minded  disciples,  see  what 
manner  of  stones,  and  what  buildings  are  here. 
But  He  turned  and  said  to  the  twelve,  I  have  a 
baptism  to  be  baptized  with,  and  how  am  I 
straitened  till  it  be  accomplished.  The  immense 
size  of  those  stones,  and  the  exquisite  carving  of 
their  capitals,  would  have  interested  Him  at 
another  time,  but  His  own  time  was  now  at  hand  : 
and  so  much  so  that  He  could  see  nothing  else, 
all  that  terrible  week,  but  Gethsemane  and  its  cup, 
and  Calvary  and  its  cross.  And,  to  come  down  to 
His  great  servant :  when  Mont  Blanc  was  so  full 
to  him  of  the  glory  of  snow  and  sunshine  on  many 
a  Sabbath  morning,  Calvin  was  wont  to  boast  it  all 
back  into  its  own  place  wath  this  out  of  the 
Psalms, — '  The  hill  of  God  is  as  the  hill  of  Bashan  ; 
an  high  hill  as  the  hill  of  Bashan.  Why  leap  ye, 
ye  high  hills  ?  This  is  the  hill  that  God  desireth 
to  dwell  in  :  yea,  the  Lord  will  dwell  in  it  for 
ever';  and,  so  singing,  Calvin  went  up  again  to 
Mount  Zion.  Cicero  says  somewhere  that  Plato 
and  Demosthenes,  Aristotle  and  Socrates,  might 
have  respectively  excelled  in  each  other's  province, 
had  it  not  been  that  each  one  of  those  great  men 
was  so  absorbed  in  his  own  province.  And  Paul 
might  have  been  a  Christian  Herodotus,  and  a  New 
Testament  Pausanias,  had  it  not  been  for  his  own 

163 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

absolutely  absorbing  province  of  sin  and  salvation 

from  sin. 

All  thoughts,  all  passions,  all  delights  : 
Whatever  stirs  this  mortal  frame  ; 

All  are  but  ministers  of  Love, 
And  feed  His  sacred  flame. 

Among  all  the  heathenish  doxologies  of  her 
voluminous  devotees,  nature  has  never  had  half 
such  a  noble  tribute  paid  to  her  true  greatness,  as 
Paul  pays  to  her,  in  three  verses  of  his  immortal 
eighth  chapter.  All  the  true  lovers  of  nature : 
that  is  to  say,  all  the  true  worshippers,  not  of 
nature,  but  of  Jesus  Christ ;  have  by  heart,  and 
have  deep  down  in  their  heart,  that  famous  but 
wholly  unfathomable  tribute.  Listen  to  nature's 
truest  prophet,  and  truest  priest,  and  truest  poet, 
the  Apostle  Paul.  'For  the  earnest  expectation 
of  the  creature  waiteth  for  the  manifestation  of 
the  sons  of  God.  For  the  creature  was  made 
subject  to  vanity,  not  willingly,  but  by  reason  of 
Him  who  hath  subjected  the  same  in  hope.  Be- 
cause the  creature  itself  shall  be  delivered  from 
the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the  glorious  liberty 
of  the  sons  of  God.  For  we  know  that  the  whole 
creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  together 
until  now.  And  not  only  they,  but  ourselves 
also,  which  have  the  first-fruits  of  the  Spirit,  even 
we  ourselves,  groan  within  ourselves,  waiting  for 
the  adoption."  Match  that,  if  you  can,  for  a 
tribute  to  nature's  true  greatness.  Match  that,  if 
you  can,  out  of  all  your  sentimental  stuff.  You 
cannot  do  it.  I  defy  you  to  do  it.  Pascal  is 
164 


HEAVINESS  AND  SORROW  OF  HEART 

constantly  saying  this  of  man,  that  man's  great 
misery  is  the  true  measure  of  his  greatness. 
Give  me,  therefore,  Paul's  profound  lamentation 
over  the  bondage,  and  the  vanity,  and  the  groan- 
ing, and  the  travailing  of  nature ;  and  over  the 
shame,  and  the  sin,  and  the  misery  of  man  her 
master.  And,  then,  give  me  his  magnificent  pro- 
phecy over  her  evangelical  future.  To  all  of 
which  profound  pathos  on  the  one  hand,  and  to 
all  of  which  magnificent  hope  on  the  other  hand, 
your  nature-worshipper's  unbroken  heart  is  utterly 
stupid  and  dead.  Paul  was  such  a  great  man, 
and  such  a  great  apostle  of  the  Creator  and 
Redeemer  both  of  man  and  of  nature,  that,  in 
their  present  state  of  sin  and  misery,  and  on  that 
account,  like  his  Master,  he  was  a  man  of  incon- 
solable sorrows.  And  yet  babes  at  the  breast 
will  wail  out  against  the  insensibility  of  that 
mighty  mind  and  mighty  heart ;  will  wail  out  at 
his  insensibility  and  indifference  to  those  toys  and 
trifles  that  so  sanctify  and  satisfy  them,  as  they 
so  often  assure  us.  Whatever  may  be  the  true 
explanation  of  your  entire  satisfaction  with  nature, 
and  with  art,  and  with  travel,  and  with  yourself, 
this  is  undoubtedly  the  true  explanation  of  Paul's 
great  heaviness  and  continual  sorrow  of  heart. 
The  tremendous  catastrophe  of  the  fall  of  man, 
and  the  fall  of  all  nature  around  man, — that,  to 
Paul,  was  so  ever-present  and  so  all-possessing, 
that  there  is  no  alleviation  of  his  awful  pain  of 
heart  on  account  of  all  that.  At  any  rate,  there 
is  no  alleviation  or  relief  for  him  in  the  colour  of 

165 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

the  morning  or  evening  sky,  or  in  the  shape  of  the 
hills,  or  in  the  music  of  the  woods  and  the  waters. 
Miserable  comforters  are  all  these  things  to  Paul's 
broken  heart ;  but,  most  miserable  of  all,  your 
mountebank  comforters  among  men,  who  would 
thrust  things  like  these  upon  PauPs  profound  and 
inappeasable  sorrow.  '  A  man  in  distress,'  says 
John  Foster,  'has  peculiarly  a  right  not  to  be 
trifled  with  by  the  application  of  unadapted  ex- 
pedients :  since  insufficient  consolations  but  mock 
him,  and  deceptive  consolations  betray  him.'  The 
whole  truth  about  Paul,  above  all  other  mortal 
men,  is  this.  Paul  is  so  intensely  religious  in  his 
whole  mind,  and  heart,  and  imagination,  and 
temperament,  and  taste :  he  is  so  utterly  and 
absolutely  godly  ;  he  is  such  an  out-and-out  Chris- 
tian man  and  Christian  apostle  :  he  is  so  consumed 
continually  with  his  hunger  and  his  thirst  after 
righteousness  :  he  is  so  captivated,  enthralled,  and 
enraptured  with  the  beauty  of  holiness,  that  nothing 
will  ever  satisfy  Paul,  either  for  nature,  or  for  art, 
or  for  travel,  or  for  man,  or  for  himself,  short  of 
the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth.  And  until 
that  day  dawns,  and  that  day-star  arises  in  PauPs 
heart,  whatever  you  and  I  may  do,  he  will  con- 
tinue to  look,  not  at  the  things  that  are  seen,  but 
at  the  things  that  are  not  seen ;  for  the  things 
which  are  seen  are  temporal,  but  the  things  which 
are  not  seen  are  eternal.  Renan  sometimes  hits 
the  mark  in  a  manner  that  both  surprises  and  re- 
bukes us.  'Paul,'  says  that  truly  wonderful  writer, 
'  belongs  wholly  to  another  world  than  this  present 
1 66 


HEAVINESS  AND  SORROW  OF  HEART 

world.  Paul's  Parnassus  and  Olympus  ;  his  sunrises 
and  his  sunsets ;  his  whole  Greece,  and  Rome,  and 
Holy  Land  itself,  are  all  elsewhere,  and  not  here." 

But  not  amidst  nature  and  art  and  travel  only, 
but  amidst  far  better  things  than  these,  men  like 
Paul  are  often  made  men  of  sorrow  and  of  a  heavy 
heart.  '  How,  now,  good  friend,  whither  away 
after  this  burdened  manner  ?  A  burdened  manner 
indeed,  as  ever  I  think  poor  creature  had.  Hast 
thou  a  wife  and  children  ?  Yes ;  but  I  am 
so  laden  with  this  burden,  that  I  cannot  take 
that  pleasure  in  them  as  I  once  thought  I  would. 
Methinks,  I  am  as  if  I  had  them  not.'  A  bold 
passage,  but  a  right  noble  passage.  A  Paul-like 
passage.  Paul  had  neither  wife  nor  child,  but  he 
could  not  have  written  a  better  passage  than  John 
Bunyan's  above  passage,  even  if  he  had  had  as 
many  children  as  John  Bunyan  had,  and  had  loved 
them,  and  had  wept  over  them,  as  only  John 
Bunyan  could  love  and  weep.  At  the  same  time, 
it  would  have  been  an  additional  relief,  and  a  real 
and  a  peculiar  support  to  us,  to  have  had  a  passage 
immediately  from  PauFs  own  pen  on  the  heaviness 
of  heart  that  cannot  but  accompany  family  life, 
when  a  man  of  PauPs  sensibility,  and  of  John 
Bunyan's  sensibility,  is  at  the  head  of  that  family. 
For  PauFs  most  noble  lamentation  over  the  out- 
of-doors  creation  is  cold  and  remote,  and  is  wholly 
without  those  bowels  and  mercies,  that  would  have 
been  stirred  in  Paul  had  he  walked  with  a  perfect 
heart  before  his  house  at  home.  But  in  the 
absence   of  Paul    on    the   profoundest   aspects  of 

167 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

family  life,  I  know  nothing  better  anywhere  than 
the  Pilgrim's  reply  to  Mr.  Worldly  Wiseman ; 
and,  some  time  after,  to  Charity.  To  Charity, 
who,  though  like  the  Apostle  she  has  no  children 
of  her  own  body,  yet  like  him,  her  love,  and  her 
imagination,  and  her  genius  for  the  things  of  the 
heart,  all  make  her  speak  to  us  like  a  mother  in 
Israel,  and  all  make  John  Bunyan  to  speak  in 
reply  to  her  like  a  father  in  the  same.  As  Thomas 
Boston  also  has  it  in  one  of  his  Shakespearian 
passages  :  '  Man  is  born  crying,  lives  complaining, 
and  dies  disappointed  from  that  quarter.  All  is 
vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit.  But  I  have  waited 
for  Thy  salvation,  O  Lord.' 

Why  are  the  ungodly  generally  so  jocund  ?  asks 
Thomas  Shepard.  Partly,  he  answers,  their  want 
of  understanding.  They  may  be  very  eloquent  on 
scenery,  and  on  travel,  and  on  art,  and  yet  the 
scales  may  be  on  their  eyes  and  the  shell  on  their 
heads  all  the  time  as  to  anything  deeper  than  the 
surface  of  things.  Most  men,  he  asserts,  remain 
total  strangers  to  themselves,  and  to  their  true 
spiritual  state,  all  their  days.  And  a  little  after 
that,  this  pungentest  of  preachers  goes  on  to 
ask  why  the  truly  godly  are  ofttimes  so  much 
more  sad  and  melancholy  than  other  people.? 
And  among  other  deep  answers  he  supplies  him- 
self and  us  with  this  deep  answer, — It  is  not 
because  they  are  too  godly  that  they  are  so  sad, 
but  because  they  are  not  far  more  godly.  They 
have  grace  enough  to  bring  them  off  from  casual 
and  worldly  delights,  but  not  enough  to  enable 
i68 


HEAVINESS  AND  SORROW  OF  HEART 

them  to  live  upon  the  spiritual  and  eternal  world, 
and  to  fetch  all  their  comforts  from  thence.  Grace 
has  for  ever  spoiled  their  joy  in  the  creature,  but 
they  are  not  yet  grown  so  spiritual  as  to  live  upon 
God  alone,  and  hence  it  is  that  they  are  found 
so  often  hovering  in  sadness  and  dissatisfaction 
between  earth  and  heaven.  Thomas  Shepard's  Ten 
Virgins,  and  his  Zacchceus,  are  perfect  mines  of  the 
profoundest  and  most  experimental  truth.  Lord 
Brodie  also  will  give  us  his  testimony  on  this  same 
subject  out  of  his  heavy-hearted  diary.  Brodie 
was  not  Paul,  nor  Pascal,  nor  Bunyan,  nor  even 
Thomas  Shepard,  but  he  had  sufficient  heaviness 
of  mind  and  sorrow  of  heart  to  purchase  him  a 
right  and  a  title  to  be  listened  to  on  this  matter 
now  in  hand.  '  I  never  could  allow  myself,'  he 
says,  '  much  exuberant  joy  in  any  created  thing. 
But  I  have  always  exercised  myself  to  hold  every 
such  thing  soberly  and  ready  to  be  surrendered  up.' 
And  the  truly  great  Halyburton  has  much  the 
same  thing  to  tell  us.  '  The  strong  power  of  sin 
that  I  found  still  remaining  in  me,  and  the 
disturbances  thence  arising,  made  life  not  desirable  ; 
and  a  prospect  of  final  and  complete  riddance  by 
death,  made  death  appear  much  more  eligible.' 

But  to  come  back  before  we  close  to  what  we 
began  with,  that  is  to  say,  the  true  place  of  nature 
in  the  religious,  and  especially  in  the  Christian,  life. 
And  instead  of  offering  you  my  own  weak  words 
on  such  a  high  subject,  take  this  classical  passage 
out  of  the  diary  of  Thomas  Shepard's  great  pupil 
in   the  things  of  the  soul,  the  greatest  man,  Dr. 

169 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

Duncan  is  inclined  to  think,  since  Aristotle.  We 
all  know  the  use  that  our  Lord  makes  of  nature 
in  His  preaching.  Well,  here  are  some  examples 
of  the  uses  that  Jonathan  Edwards  makes  of  nature 
also.  '  Immediately  after  my  conversion,  God''s 
excellency  began  to  appear  to  me  in  everything — 
in  the  sun,  in  the  moon,  in  the  stars,  in  the 
waters,  and  in  all  nature.  The  Son  of  God  created 
this  world  for  this  very  end,  to  communicate  to  us 
through  it  a  certain  image  of  His  own  excellency, 
so  that  when  we  are  delighted  with  flowery 
meadows  and  gentle  breezes  of  wind  we  may  see  in 
all  that  only  the  sweet  benevolence  of  Jesus  Christ. 
When  we  behold  the  fragrant  rose  and  the  snow- 
white  lily,  we  are  to  see  His  love  and  His  purity. 
Even  so  the  green  trees,  and  the  songs  of  birds, 
what  are  they  but  the  emanations  of  His  infinite 
joy  and  benignity  ?  The  crystal  rivers  and 
murmuring  streams,  what  are  they  but  the  footsteps 
of  His  favour  and  grace  and  beauty  ?  When  we 
behold  the  brightness  of  the  sun,  the  golden  edges 
of  the  evening  cloud,  or  the  beauteous  rainbow 
spanning  the  whole  heaven,  we  but  behold  some 
adumbration  of  His  glory  and  His  goodness. 
And,  without  any  doubt,  this  is  the  reason  that 
Christ  is  called  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  the 
Morning  Star,  the  Rose  of  Sharon,  and  the  Lily  of 
the  Valley,  the  apple-tree  among  the  trees  of  the 
wood,  a  bundle  of  myrrh,  a  roe,  and  a  young  hart. 
But  we  see  the  most  proper  image  of  the  beauty 
of  Christ  when  we  see  the  beauty  of  the  soul  of 
man.'  So  far  the  greatest  mind  since  Aristotle. 
170 


XVI 

PAUL  THE  AGED 

IT  is  calculated  that  the  Apostle  must  have 
been  somewhere  between  fifty-eight  and  sixty- 
four  when  he  wrote  of  himself  to  Philemon  as  Paul 
the  aged.  Certain  difticulties  have  sometimes  been 
raised  over  the  text.  It  has  sometimes  been  asked 
whether  Paul  would  have  spoken  of  himself  as 
such  an  old  man,  say,  at  sixty,  or  sixty-three.  But 
a  thousand  things  may  come  in  to  make  a  man  feel 
either  old  or  young  at  that,  or  at  any  other  age. 
The  kind  of  life  a  man  has  lived ;  virtuous  or 
vicious,  religious  or  irreligious,  idle  or  industrious, 
for  himself,  or  for  God  and  his  generation,  the 
state  of  his  health,  the  state  of  his  fortune,  his 
family  life,  his  disappointed  or  fulfilled  hopes  in 
life,  and  so  on.  Cicoro  wrote  his  Cato  at  sixty- 
three,  and  the  great  orator's  design  in  that 
famous  dialogue  was  to  brace  up  those  men 
around  him  whose  knees  were  beginning  to 
tremble,  and  their  hands  to  hang  down  about  that 
time  of  life.  And  Cicero  goes  on  to  fortify  first 
himself  and  then  his  readers,  v/ith  such  examples 
as  those  of  Plato,  who  died  at  his  desk  at  eighty- 
one  ;   and   Isocrates,    who   wrote   one   of  his  best 

171 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

books  at  ninety-four,  and  who  lived  another  five 
years  on  the  fame  of  it ;  and  Gorgias  the  Leontine, 
who  completed  a  hundred  and  seven  years,  and 
never  to  the  end  loitered  in  his  love  of  work,  but 
died  leaving  this  testimony  on  his  deathbed,  '  I 
have  had  no  cause  for  blaming  old  age,'  he  said. 
'  I,  myself,'  adds  Cato,  '  supported  the  Voconian 
law  at  sixty-five  with  an  unimpaired  voice  and 
powerful  lungs.'  And,  best  of  all,  at  the  age  of 
seventy,  Ennius  lived  in  such  a  heart  as  to  bear 
nobly  those  two  burdens,  which  are  by  most  men 
deemed  the  greatest — poverty  and  old  age.  Ennius 
bore  those  two  burdens  with  what  seemed  to  all 
men  around  him  the  greatest  goodwill.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  annotating  the  text  Bishop  Lightfoot 
reminds  us  that  Roger  Bacon  complained  of  him- 
self at  fifty-three  as  already  an  old  man.  And  so 
too  Sir  Walter  Scott  lamented  of  himself  at  fifty- 
five  as  '  a  grey  old  man.'  Now  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  those  two  Christians  do  not  come  out 
at  all  well  when  set  beside  the  brave-hearted 
heathens.  Only,  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson's  shout 
must  not  be  forgotten — Drink  water.  Sir,  and  go 
in  for  a  hundred  !  And  who  himself  drank  water 
and  went  in  for  reading  the  best  and  writing  the 
best,  till  he  published  his  masterpiece  after  he 
was  threescore  and  ten.  Dante's  old  age  in  the 
Banquet  begins  at  forty-five.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  Tacitus  declares  that  if  he  had  one  foot  in 
the  grave,  it  would  not  matter,  he  would  still  be 
reading  and  writing  the  best. 

Now,  with  all  his  love  and  loyalty  to  Paul,  and 
172 


PAUL  THE  AGED 

with  all  his  perfect  understanding  of  everything 
connected  with  Paul,  for  some  reason  or  other, 
Luke  all  but  completely  fails  us  as  Paul's  old  age 
approaches.  '  And  Paul  dwelt  two  whole  years  in 
his  own  hired  house  in  Rome,  and  received  all  that 
came  in  unto  him,  preaching  the  kingdom  of 
God,  and  teaching  those  things  which  concern  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  with  all  confidence,  no  man 
forbidding  him."*  These  are  Luke's  very  last  words 
to  us  about  Paul.  I  wish  I  could  believe  that 
these  beautiful  words  described  PauFs  very  last 
days  down  to  the  end.  But  when  Luke,  for  some 
reason  or  other,  drops  into  absolute  silence,  Paul's 
own  Epistles  of  the  Imprisonment  come  in  to 
supply  us  with  such  affecting  glimpses  into  the 
Apostle's  last  days  as  these.  '  I,  Paul,  the  prisoner 
of  Jesus  Christ.  For  whom  I  am  an  ambassador 
in  bonds.  Be  not  ashamed  of  me  His  prisoner. 
For  my  bonds  are  manifest.  This  also  thou 
knowest  that  all  those  that  are  in  Asia  be  turned 
away  from  me.  But  the  Lord  have  mercy  on  the 
house  of  Onesiphorus,  for  he  oft  refreshed  me,  and 
was  not  ashamed  of  my  chain.  For  I  am  now  ready 
to  be  offered  up,  and  the  time  of  my  departure  is 
at  hand.  Demas  hath  forsaken  me,  having  loved 
this  present  world.  Only  Luke  is  with  me.  The 
cloke  that  I  left  at  Troas,  when  thou  com  est,  bring 
with  thee,  and  the  books,  but  especially  the  parch- 
ments.' With  one  foot  in  the  grave,  like  Tacitus, 
Paul  is  still  reading  books  and  writing  parchments. 
*  At  my  first  answer  no  man  stood  by  me,  but  all 
men  forsook  me.     Do  thy  diligence  to  come  to  me 

173 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

before  winter.  You  see  Paul  forsaken,  lonely, 
cold  and  without  his  cloke,  chained  to  a  soldier, 
and  waiting  on  one  of  Nero's  mad  fits  for  his 
martyrdom.  Well  may  Paul  say,  if  in  this  life 
only  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all  men 
most  miserable.  But  Paul  has  such  an  anchor 
within  the  veil  that,  amid  all  these  sad  calamities, 
old  age  and  all,  he  is  able  to  send  out  such 
Epistles  of  faith  and  hope  and  love  as  the 
Ephesians  and  the  Colossians  and  the  Philippians 
and  the  Pastorals  and  Philemon.  Comparing  the 
Odyssey  with  the  lUad^  Longinus  says,  '  If  I  speak 
of  old  age,  it  is  nevertheless  the  old  age  of  Homer.' 
I  really  wish  I  could  prevail  with  you  who  are 
no  longer  young  to  put  aside,  as  Butler  beseeches 
you,  your  books  and  papers  of  mere  amusement,  and 
to  read  Cicero's  Cato^  and  some  of  the  other  old 
age  classics,  if  only  to  make  those  fine  books  to 
serve  for  so  many  foils  in  a  fresh  perusal  of  the 
Epistles  of  the  Imprisonment.  It  is  our  bounden 
duty  to  read  a  Greek  or  a  Roman  masterpiece 
now  and  then,  such  as  the  Phcedo  or  the  Cato,  if 
only  to  awaken  ourselves  again  to  the  immensity 
of  the  change  that  came  into  this  world  with  the 
Incarnation  and  the  Resurrection  of  our  Lord. 
What  a  contrast  between  philosophy  at  its  very 
best  in  Socrates  and  Cicero,  and  the  Gospel  of  our 
salvation  unto  everlasting  life  in  Paul's  old  age 
Epistles  !  The  whole  truth  and  beauty  and  nobility 
of  such  books  as  the  best  of  Plato  and  Cicero  is 
all  needed  the  better  to  bring  out  the  inconceivable 
contrast  between  this  world  at  its  very  best  before 

174 


PAUL  THE  AGED 

Christ,  and  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth 
that  our  Lord  brought  to  this  world  with  Him 
and  left  in  this  world  behind  Him.  How  such 
glorious  passages  as  these  shine  out  afresh  upon  us 
after  we  have  just  laid  down  the  Cato  and  even 
the  Phcedo.  Such  well-known,  but  so  little  realised, 
passages  as  these :  '  Christ  shall  be  magnified  in 
my  body,  whether  it  be  by  life  or  by  death.  For 
to  me  to  live  is  Christ,  and  to  die  is  gain.  For  I 
am  in  a  strait  betwixt  two,  having  a  desire  to 
depart,  and  to  be  with  Christ,  which  is  far  better. 
For  our  conversation  is  in  heaven  ;  from  whence 
also  we  look  for  the  Saviour,  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  shall  change  our  vile  body,  that  it 
may  be  fashioned  like  unto  His  glorious  body, 
according  to  the  workings  whereby  He  is  able  even 
to  subdue  all  things  unto  Himself.  For  I  am 
now  ready  to  be  offered,  and  the  time  of  my 
departure  is  at  hand.  I  have  fought  a  good 
fight,  I  have  finished  my  course,  I  have  kept  the 
faith.  Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown 
of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous 
Judge,  shall  give  me  at  that  day ;  and  not  to  me 
only,  but  unto  all  them  also  that  love  His  appear- 
ing.' What  a  man  was  Paul !  If  he  was 
a  man,  as  one  said.  Really  and  truly,  my 
brethren,  it  would  be  well  worth  your  putting 
yourselves  to  some  expense  and  some  trouble 
in  order  to  read,  say,  the  Consolations  of  Cato 
to  your  old  age,  and  then  to  turn  to  PauPs 
consolations  and  comforts.  Unless,  indeed,  you 
already  read  your  Paul  with  such   understanding, 

175 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

and  with  such  imagination,  and  with  such  heart, 
that  you  do  not  need  the  assistance  that  Plato 
and  Cicero  were  raised  up  and  preserved  to  this 
day  to  give  you. 

Well ;  after  repeated  readings  lately  of  the 
Cato,  and  the  Epistles  of  the  Imprisonment,  and 
the  Art  of  Dying  Well,  and  Jeremy  Taylor,  and 
suchlike  authors  for  old  age,  I  will  now  tell  you 
some  of  the  reflections,  impressions,  and  resolu- 
tions, that  have  been  left  on  my  own  mind.  And 
take  first  PauFs  so  touching  message  to  Timothy 
about  his  cloke,  and  his  books,  and  his  parch- 
ments. For  all  that  comes  in  most  harmoniously 
after  we  have  just  been  reading  Cato  about  our 
keeping  on  reading  and  writing  our  best  to  the 
end.  Lest  you  might  not  be  able  to  lay  your  hands 
on  what  Calvin  says  about  PauPs  books,  I  will 
copy  out  the  passage  for  you.  '  It  is  evident  from 
this,"*  says  the  prince  of  commentators,  'that 
the  Apostle  has  not  given  over  study  even  when 
he  is  preparing  himself  for  death.  Where  are 
those  men  then,  who  think  that  they  have 
made  so  great  progress  that  they  do  not  need 
any  more  to  persevere  ?  Which  of  you  will 
have  the  courage  to  compare  yourself  with  the 
Apostle  ?  Still  more  surely  does  this  passage 
refute  the  folly  of  those  fools  who,  despising 
books,  and  neglecting  all  study,  boast  of  their 
spiritual  inspiration."*  And  if  I  might  be  bold 
enoufT:h  to  add  one  word  after  Calvin.  I  am 
not  now,  alas  !  a  neophyte  in  these  matters, 
and  I  will  therefore  take  boldness  to  say  this  to 
176 


PAUL  THE  AGED 

you.  Read  the  very  best  books,  and  only  the 
very  best,  and  ever  better  and  better  the  older 
you  grow.  Be  more  and  more  select,  and 
fastidious,  and  refined,  in  your  books  and  in 
your  companions,  as  old  age  draws  on,  and 
death  with  old  age.  I  wonder  just  what  books 
they  were  that  Paul  missed  so  much  in  his 
imprisoned  and  apostolic  old  age  at  Rome  ? 
It  might  have  been  the  Apology.  It  might  have 
been  the  Phoedo.  It  might  have  been  the  Cato 
Major.  It  could  not  possibly  have  been  Moses, 
or  David,  or  Isaiah,  or  Micah.  You  may  depend 
upon  it,  Paul  did  not  forget  his  Bible  when  he 
was  packing  his  trunk  at  Troas.  You  are  far 
better  off  in  the  matter  of  books  for  your  old  age 
than  Paul  was  with  his  Bible  and  all.  Never, 
then,  be  out  of  your  Old,  and  especially,  never  be 
out  of  your  New  Testament.  As  Paul  says  about 
prayer,  read  in  your  New  Testament  without 
ceasing.  Never  lay  it  down,  unless  it  is  to  take 
up  another  letter  of  Samuel  Rutherford,  or  an- 
other pilgrim's  crossing  of  the  river ;  or,  if  you 
have  head  enough  left  for  it,  another  great  chapter 
of  the  Saiufs  Rest.  Nothing  else.  At  least, 
nothing  less  pertinent  and  appropriate  to  your 
years  and  to  your  immediate  prospects.  Nothing 
less  noble.  Nothing  less  worthy  of  yourself.  No- 
thing at  all  but  just  those  true  classics  of  the 
eternal  world  over  and  over  again,  till  your  whole 
soul  is  in  a  flame  with  them,  and  till  your  rapture 
into  heaven  seizes  upon  you  with  one  of  them  in 
your  hand. 

M  177 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

You  may  remember  how  a  great  divine  as  he 
grew  old  was  wont,  for  tha.t  and  for  some  other 
reasons,  to  go  back  now  and  then  and  take  a  turn 
up  and  down  in  his  unregenerate  state.  As  Paul 
also  was  wont  to  do.  For  as  Paul  grew  older  and 
saintlier,  he  the  oftener  would  go  back  upon  the 
sins  of  his  youth.  Paul  was  like  William  Taylor, 
who  when  asked  of  God  what  he  would  choose 
for  a  gift  in  his  old  age,  answered,  repentance 
unto  life.  And  thus  it  is  that  if  you  are  well 
read  in  Paul's  old-age  Epistles  you  will  find  far 
more  repentance  unto  life  in  his  last  years,  than 
even  in  his  years  of  immediate  conversion  and 
remorse.  You  meet  with  an  ever  deeper  bitter- 
ness at  sin,  and  at  himself,  as  time  goes  on  with 
Paul :  and,  then,  a  corresponding  amazement  at 
God's  mercy.  And  you  will  do  well  to  be 
followers  of  the  Apostle,  and  the  Puritan,  and 
the  Presbyterian,  in  this  sinner-becoming  practice. 
Go  back,  then,  deliberately  and  at  length,  and 
take  many  a  good  look  at  the  hole  of  the  pit  you 
had  dug  for  yourself,  and  in  which  you  had  made 
your  bed  in  hell.  And  come  up  from  the  mouth 
of  that  horrible  pit,  and  up  to  that  Rock  on 
which  you  now  stand,  and  see  if  the  result  will 
not  be  the  same  in  you  that  it  was  in  Paul  and 
in  those  two  most  Pauline  of  preachers  and  writers  ; 
see  if  it  will  not  make  you  hate  sin  with  a  more 
and  more  perfect  hatred,  as  also  to  make  you 
long  again,  and  as  never  before,  to  be  for  ever 
with  the  Lord. 

And,  not   only  read  your   very   best,  but  pray 

178 


PAUL  THE  AGED 

your  very  best  also,  and  that  literally  without 
ceasing.  Yes,  without  one  atom  of  exaggeration, 
or  hyperbole,  always  and  without  ceasing.  If  for 
no  other  reason  than  just  to  make  up  a  little 
before  you  die  for  ever,  for  your  long  life,  now 
for  ever  past,  and  in  which  you  have  found  time 
for  everything  but  prayer,  and  for  every  one  but 
God.  Or,  have  you  no  children  or  grandchildren 
to  make  up  to  them  also  for  your  neglect  of  their 
immortal  souls  ?  And  have  you  in  this  matter 
ever  considered  God's  acknowledged  and  accepted 
servant  Job  ?  How  with  him  it  always  was  so, 
that  when  the  days  of  his  children''s  feastings  again 
came  round,  he  sent  and  sanctified  them,  and  rose 
up  early  in  the  morning  and  offered  up  burnt- 
offerings  according  to  the  number  of  them  all. 
When  do  you  offer  up  for  your  children,  early  in 
the  morning,  or  late  at  night  ?  Different  fathers 
have  different  habits.  Or,  when  you  go  back  with 
Paul  and  take  a  turn  up  and  down  in  your  un- 
regenerate  state,  do  you  never  come  upon  slain 
souls  w^ho  are  now  under  the  altar,  and  who  cry 
continually  concerning  you — How  long,  O  Lord, 
holy  and  true,  dost  Thou  not  judge  and  avenge  our 
blood  on  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth  !  Pray, 
O  unforgiven  old  man  !  Pray  without  ceasing,  all 
the  time  that  is  now  left  you.  And  who  can 
tell,  if  God  will  turn  and  repent,  and  turn  away 
from  His  fierce  anger  against  you,  that  you  perish 
not. 

And  every  day  and  every  night  over  your  Paul 
and  your  Bunyan  and  your  Rutherford  and  your 

179 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

Baxter,  and  suchlike,  practise,  as  they  all  did,  your 
imagination  and  your  heart  upon  Jesus  Christ. 
Practise  upon  Him  till  He  is  far  more  real  to 
you,  and  far  more  present  with  you,  than  the  best 
of  those  people  are  who  have  lived  all  your  days 
in  the  same  house  with  you.  Jesus  Christ  either 
is,  or  He  is  not.  If  He  is  not,  then  there  is 
nothing  more  to  be  said.  But  if  He  is,  then  set 
aside  every  one  else,  and  practise  His  presence  with 
you,  and  your  presence  with  Him.  Imagine  Christ. 
Make  pictures  by  that  splendid  talent  that  God 
has  given  you  for  the  very  purpose  of  making 
pictures  to  yourself  of  Christ.  Make  pictures  to 
yourself  of  your  meeting  with  Christ  immediately 
after  death.  Forefancy  your  deathbed,  said 
Samuel  Rutherford.  It  was  the  fore  fancying  of 
his  deathbed  that  was  the  conversion  and  salvation 
of  that  old  man  to  whom  Rutherford  sent  the 
letter.  Do  you  ever  forefancy  your  first  meeting 
with  Christ  ?  How  do  you  think  He  will  look  ? 
How  and  where  will  you  look  ?  Rehearse 
the  scene,  and  have  your  part  ready.  It  is 
to  the  old  alone,  be  it  clearly  understood,  that 
these  things  are  spoken.  The  young,  and  the 
middle-aged,  and  those  who  are  busy  with  other 
things  than  preparing  to  meet  with  Christ,  and 
with  other  books  than  the  above — they  have 
plenty  of  time.  But  neither  you  nor  I.  Let  us, 
at  any  rate,  be  up  and  doing.  Santa  Teresa  felt 
a  thrill  go  through  her  every  time  the  clock  struck 
in  the  church  tower.  The  same  thrill,  as  she  had 
been  told,  that  all  our  earthly  brides  feel  each 
1 80 


PAUL  THE  AGED 

time  their  too  slow  clock  strikes.  An  hour 
nearer  seeing  Him  !  she  exclaimed,  and  clapped  her 
hands.  Up,  all  you  old  people,  and  be  like  her. 
Up,  and  make  yourselves  ready.  Up,  and  abolish 
death.  Up,  out  of  your  bondage  all  your  days 
through  fear  of  death.  Up,  and  practise  dying 
in  the  Lord,  till  you  take  the  prize.  Up,  and 
read  Paul  without  ceasing,  and  pray  without 
ceasing,  till  you  also  shall  stand  on  tiptoe  with 
expectation  and  with  full  assurance  of  faith.  Yes; 
up,  till  you  also  shall  salute  His  sudden  coming, 
and  shall  exclaim,  Even  so,  come  quickly,  Lord 
Jesus ! 


i8i 


FIVE  SERMONS  ON  PAULINE 
TEXTS 


FIRST    SERMON 

THE  BLOOD  OF  GOD 

THE  CHURCH  OF  GOD,  WHICH 
HE  HATH  PURCHASED  WITH 
HIS  OWN  BLOOD.— Acta  XX.  28. 

THERE  is  a  well-known  device  in  first-class 
composition  whereby  a  great  author  gives 
his  readers  a  sudden  stroke  of  surprise ;  and  that 
is  when  he  substitutes  quite  another  name  for 
the  ordinary  and  the  expected  name  of  the  person 
concerning  whom  he  is  writing.  All  our  best 
literature  is  full  of  this  ancient  rhetorical  device ; 
Holy  Scripture  is  full  of  it,  and  the  text  is  a  case 
in  point.  The  readers  of  the  Apostle  would  have 
expected  him  to  say  :  The  Church  of  God,  which 
He  hath  purchased  with  the  blood  of  His  Son  ;  or, 
with  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ ;  or,  with  the  blood 
of  the  Lamb.  But  by  this  new  and  unique  way 
in  which  the  Apostle  words  this  great  scripture,  he 
startles  his  readers  into  still  more  wonder  and 
worship  than  if  he  had  been  content  to  employ 
one  of  those  far  more  usual  names  of  our  Lord. 
In  this  very  bold  passage  the  Apostle  sets  the  sin- 
atoning  death  of  Jesus  Christ  before  us  with  the 
veil  of  His  flesh  withdrawn,  as  it  were,  for  a 
moment.      In  this   almost  too  bold   scripture,  he 

i8s 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

sets  before  us  the  pure  and  immediate  Godhead  of 
our  Lord  made  sin  for  us.  And  the  immense  im- 
pression that  these  almost  too  awful  words,  the 
blood  of  God,  make  on  our  minds  and  our  hearts 
as  often  as  we  return  to  them,  is  the  Apostle's 
complete  justification  and  rich  reward  for  his 
almost  too  bold  employment  of  those  awful 
words. 

1.  Now,  in  the  first  place,  what  an  unspeakable 
evil  sin  must  be  !  We  would  not  have  been  alto- 
gether ignorant  of  the  awful  evil  of  sin,  even  if  it 
had  not  gone  the  length  of  the  blood  of  God. 
We  could  not  have  shut  our  eyes  to  the  way  that 
sin  has  cursed  and  enslaved  the  soul  of  man. 
Death  here,  and  hell  hereafter,  would  surely  have 
burned  something  of  the  diabolical  evil  of  sin  into 
the  most  sin-seared  conscience  and  into  the  most 
stone-hardened  heart.  But  all  the  sick-beds,  and 
all  the  death-beds,  and  all  the  lazar-houses,  and 
all  the  mad-houses,  and  all  the  battle-fields,  and 
all  the  desolated  homes,  and  all  the  broken  hearts 
of  men  and  women,  from  the  fall  of  man  to  the 
day  of  judgment,  would  not  have  proclaimed 
to  earth  and  heaven  and  hell  the  unspeakable 
malice  and  wickedness  of  sin.  God's  own  blood, 
shed  by  sin,  and  shed  for  sin ;  that  alone,  in  all 
the  universe,  is  the  full  measure  of  the  infinite 
evil  of  sin.  '  Whatever  your  thoughts  about  sin 
may  be ;  whatever  your  experience  and  estimate  of 
sin  may  be,  that  is  My  experience  and  estimate  of 
sin,'  says  Almighty  God,  pointing  us  to  Gethsemane 
and  to  Calvary.  God  the  Son,  made  a  curse,  that 
I86 


THE  BLOOD  OF  GOD 

and  that  alone  is  the  true  measure  of  sin :  that 
and  that  alone  has  for  ever  revealed  the  true  evil 
of  sin :  and  that  and  that  alone  has  paid  the 
uttermost  farthing  for  our  everlasting  redemption 
and  deliverance  from  sin.  '  Let  it  be  counted  folly, 
or  phrenzy,  or  fury,  or  whatsoever,'  says  Hooker,  in 
what  is  perhaps  the  greatest  sermon  in  the  English 
language ;  '  it  is  our  wisdom  and  our  comfort.  We 
care  for  no  other  knowledge  in  the  world  but  this, 
— that  man  hath  sinned  and  God  hath  suffered  : 
that  God  hath  made  Himself  the  sin  of  men,  and 
that  men  are  made  the  righteousness  of  God.' 

2.  And  then,  what  a  glorious  seal  has  been  set 
to  the  holiness  of  the  law  of  God  by  His  own 
blood.  No  wonder  that  the  holy  law  of  God  was 
proclaimed  to  be  magnified,  and  made  honourable 
for  ever,  when  the  very  blood  of  the  Lawgiver 
Himself  was  shed  in  order  to  vindicate  and  redress 
the  broken  law.  The  throne  of  God  had  been 
founded  in  righteousness  from  everlasting.  But 
after  a  full  satisfaction  for  sin  had  been  made  with 
His  own  blood  who  had  sat  on  that  throne  from 
everlasting,  that  glorious  throne  was  for  ever 
established  in  righteousness  as  never  before.  How 
surpassingly  illustrious  has  the  holiness  of  the  law 
of  God  shone  out  on  all  earth  and  heaven  ever 
since  that  day  when  He  whose  holy  law  it  was, 
shed  His  own  blood  in  atonement  to  the  holiness 
and  the  inviolability  of  that  law  ! 

And  not  His  own  blood  at  its  last  and  com- 
pleted outpouring  only.  But,  along  with  that, 
take  all  the  things  of  the  same  kind  that  led  up  to 

187 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

His  bloodshedding  on  the  tree,  and  all  the  fhings 
that  entered  into  that  last  bloodshedding.  Take 
all  His  holy  obedience,  and  all  His  holy  endurance 
of  all  kinds  in  His  body,  and  in  His  soul,  and  in 
His  spirit,  from  His  circumcision  to  His  crucifixion. 
For  all  that  was  paid  by  Him,  first  in  tribute, 
and  then  in  atonement,  to  His  own  holy  law. 
And  it  was  all  paid  for  us.  Is  all  our  daily  and 
hourly  sin  so  much  bold  rebellion  against  God, 
and  all  done  in  despite  of  God's  holy  law  ?  Then 
see,  standing  over  against  our  rebellion,  the  com- 
plete, and  perfect,  and  most  willing  subjection  and 
obedience  in  everything  of  God  the  Son.  Are  we 
by  nature,  and  on  every  temptation  to  it,  full  of 
malice  towards  God  and  man  ?  Look,  over  against 
that,  at  our  Lord's  love  to  God  and  man.  Look 
at  His  unbounded  goodness  of  heart  and  life.  Is 
there  bitter  repining,  and  envying,  and  grudging 
in  our  hearts  at  the  good  of  our  neighbour  ?  Then 
let  us  lift  our  eyes  and  look  at  the  Son  of  God, 
how  He  made  Himself  of  no  reputation,  and  re- 
joiced at  the  prospect  of  His  sharing  His  glory  with 
us  all  for  ever.  Hear  Him,  O  jealous  and  grudg- 
ing hearts  !  <  I  thank  thee,  O  Father,  that  Thou 
hast  loved  them  as  Thou  hast  loved  Me.'  And  so 
on  through  the  whole  of  His  life  of  suretyship 
obedience,  and  on  to  the  end  of  His  death  of 
atonement,  till  His  own  holy  law  was  satisfied 
and  vindicated  to  its  very  utmost  height  and  depth 
and  length  and  breadth,  even  to  its  very  innermost 
spirituality,  in  every  thought  and  word  and  deed 
of  God  the  Son  as  the  son  of  man. 
i88 


THE  BLOOD  OF  GOD 

3.  But  the  sinner's  guilty  conscience  is  some- 
times, and  in  some  men,  far  more  difficult  to  satisfy 
and  to  silence  than  even  the  broken  law  of  God. 
Long  after  the  broken  law  of  God  has  been 
magnified  and  made  honourable,  the  sinner's  evil 
conscience  will  still  hold  out  against  all  that  can 
be  said  or  done  to  restore  its  lost  peace,  and  to 
re-establish  its  lost  confidence  in  the  goodwill  of 
God  and  man.  There  is  a  divinely  delegated 
sovereignty  in  the  human  conscience ;  and  there 
is  a  corresponding  uncompromisingness  and  in- 
appeasableness  in  the  guilty  conscience.  Even 
after  the  offended  sovereign  is  satisfied,  the  viceroy 
still  holds  out  against  the  disloyalty  and  the 
treachery.  The  crimen  Icesce  majestatis,  the  high 
misdemeanour  done  against  the  crown,  is  far  more 
resented  and  avenged  by  the  king's  judges  than 
even  by  the  king  himself.  And  sin  is  such  an 
unpardonable  misdemeanour  against  all  law  and 
all  authority,  and  it  so  gashes  the  conscience  and 
so  horrifies  the  heart  of  the  truly  penitent  sinner, 
that  absolutely  nothing  has  ever  been  discovered  to 
heal  and  to  quiet  and  to  restore  the  conscience 
but  the  blood  of  Him  who  is  God.  There  is  no 
physician  for  the  sinner's  exasperated  conscience, 
as  Luther  is  always  saying,  but  the  Lord  of  the 
conscience  Himself.  And  there  is  no  balm  that 
even  He  can  bring  to  bear  on  a  thoroughly  bad 
conscience,  but  His  own  blood.  Your  guilty  con- 
science can  have  nothing  better  than  the  blood  of 
your  God.  And  if  that  does  not  cleanse,  and 
quiet,  and  heal  your  guilty  conscience,  it  must  just 

189 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

rage  on.      Your  conscience  can  be  offered  nothing 
on  earth  or  in  heaven  beyond  the  blood  of  God. 

4.  One  of  the  ways  in  which  the  blood  of  God 
comes  to  have  such  sovereign  virtue  in  the  sinner''s 
conscience  is  this.  When  our  consciences  toward 
one  another  are  wounded,  and  are  full  of  remorse 
and  fear,  nothing  will  heal  the  wound  and  restore 
peace  between  man  and  man,  nothing  but  a  great 
uprising  of  love  between  the  alienated  parties.  But 
if  a  great  enough  uprising  and  outgoing  of  love 
takes  place  between  them,  then  not  only  is  the  lost 
peace  restored,  but  those  who  were  once  such 
enemies  are  henceforth  far  better  friends  than  ever 
they  were  before.  And  the  same  noble  law  of 
reconciling  love  holds  even  more  in  the  world  of 
sin  and  salvation.  The  blood  of  God  the  Son  is 
such  a  manifestation  of  divine  love  toward  the 
sinner  that  nothing  can  resist  it.  No  guilt,  no 
remorse,  no  terror,  no  suspicion,  can  stand  out 
against  the  love  of  God  in  the  blood  of  His  only 
begotten  Son.  It  is  not  so  much  our  Surety"*s 
payment  of  the  uttermost  farthing  of  our  debt 
that  heals  our  horrified  consciences.  It  is  not  His 
atoning  blood  even  that  so  pacifies,  and  so  conquers, 
and  gives  such  peace,  to  the  guilty  conscience. 
It  is  the  love  of  God  as  seen  in  the  atonement 
that  can  alone  do  all  that.  And  if  there  are  still 
any  of  the  dregs  of  remorse,  and  terror,  and 
irreconcilability,  and  suspicion,  in  your  conscience 
toward  God,  it  is  not  because  His  blood  is  not  of 
volume  and  virtue  enough  to  wash  away  all  your 
sins ;  but  it  is  because  you  do  not  open  your 
190 


THE  BLOOD  OF  GOD 

heart  wide  enough  and  deep  enough  to  receive 
His  love.  For  there  is  no  fear  in  love.  But 
perfect  love  on  God's  part  to  you,  awakening  on 
your  part  a  corresponding  love  to  God,  such 
perfect  love  on  both  sides  casteth  out  all  possible 
fear,  so  much  so,  that  he  that  feareth  is  not 
made  perfect  in  love. 

My  brethren,  I  can  recommend  this  great  Scrip- 
ture to  every  guilty  conscience  and  corrupt  heart. 
For,  times  and  occasions  without  number,  when 
every  other  Scripture  has  threatened  to  fail  myself, 
this  Scripture  has  been  a  rock  and  a  refuge  to  me. 
The  very  awfulness  of  the  word  used  has  again  and 
again  silenced  the  almost  as  awful  accusation  of  my 
conscience  and  the  almost  as  awful  despair  of  my 
heart.  I  know  all  that  has  been  said  against  the 
above  reading  in  this  glorious  passage ;  but  once 
read  by  me  I  shall  never  let  it  go,  though  I  have 
to  hold  it  against  all  the  world.  The  Blood 
OF  God  has  an  inward,  and  an  experimental, 
and  an  all-satisfying  evidence  to  me :  and  I 
recommend  it  to  you  with  all  my  heart. 


191 


SECOND    SERMON 

FAITH    IN    HIS    BLOOD 

BEING  JUSTIFIED  FREELY  BY  HIS 
GRACE  THROUGH  THE  REDEMPTION 
THAT  IS  IN  CHRIST  JESUS:  WHOM 
GOD  HATH  SET  FORTH  TO  BE  A  PRO- 
PITIATION THROUGH  FAITH  IN  HIS 
BLOOD :  FOR  THE  REMISSION  OF  SINS 
THA  T  ARE  PAST,  THROUGH  THE  FOR- 
BEARANCE OF  GOD :  TO  HIM  WHICH 
BELIEVETH  IN  JESUS.— Rom.  iii.  24-26. 

*^  I  "HE  happy  period  was  now  arrived  which 
J-  was  to  shake  off  my  fetters.  I  flung 
myself  into  a  chair  near  the  window,  and  seeing  a 
Bible  there  I  ventured  once  more  to  apply  to  it 
for  comfort  and  instruction.  The  first  verse  I  saw 
was  the  S  5  th  of  the  third  of  the  Romans  :  "  Whom 
God  hath  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  through 
faith  in  His  blood.''  Immediately  I  received  strength 
to  believe,  and  the  full  beams  of  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness  shone  upon  me.  I  saw  the  sufficiency 
of  the  atonement  that  Christ  had  made.  I  saw 
my  pardon  sealed  in  His  blood.  I  saw  all  the 
fulness  and  completeness  of  His  righteousness  for 
me.  In  a  moment  I  believed  and  received  the 
atonement.'  So  writes  William  Cowper  in  his 
Memoirs  of  his  early  days. 

N  193 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

'Being  justified  freely  by  His  grace/  The 
Apostle  does  not  say — being  foreknown,  or  being 
predestinated,  or  being  adopted,  or  being  sanctified, 
or  being  glorified.  He  will  say  all  these  things 
afterwards ;  at  the  proper  time  and  to  the  proper 
persons.  But  not  now,  and  not  yet.  For  the 
Apostle  has  before  him  at  this  moment  an  audience 
of  sinful  men  ;  an  audience  of  men  whose  mouths, 
in  the  Apostle's  own  words,  are  stopped  because  of 
their  guilt  before  God.  And  Paul  speaks  to  that, 
and  confines  himself  to  that.  A  guilty  and  a  con- 
demned man  may  need  much  to  be  done  for  him 
afterwards.  But  his  immediate  need  ;  his  first  need 
that  makes  all  Iiis  other  needs  to  be  forgotten,  is  his 
need  of  pardon.  Get  his  pardon  sealed,and  his  prison 
door  set  open — that  is  the  one  thing  needful  for 
him  at  the  present  moment.  And  thus  it  is  that 
Paul  addresses  the  whole  of  this  great  passage  to 
those  men  whose  mouths  are  stopped,  and  his 
great  gospel  message  to  all  such  men  is  this  :  their 
free  and  full  justification  before  God,  and  their 
acceptance  and  peace  with  God. 

But  what  is  this  justification  concerning  which 
so  much  is  said  by  the  Apostle  ?  '  Justification  is 
an  act  of  God's  free  grace,  wherein  He  pardoneth 
all  our  sins,  and  accepteth  us  as  righteous  in  His 
sight,  only  for  the  righteousness  of  Christ  imputed 
to  us,  and  received  by  faith  alone.'  You  cannot 
have  justification  better  defined  than  that,  unless 
it  is  in  the  Larger  Catechism  and  the  Confession 
of  Faith.  One  of  the  first  death-beds  I  ever 
attended  in  this  city  had  this  impressive  and 
194 


FAITH  IN  HIS  BLOOD 

memorable  fact  about  it.  The  dying  man  had 
always  the  Confession  of  Faith  open  on  his  pillow, 
and  open  at  the  chapter  on  justification.  And  as  his 
end  drew  near,  he  and  I  often  read  this  rich  section 
together  :  '  Those  whom  God  effectually  calleth,  He 
also  freely  justifieth ;  not  for  anything  wrought 
in  them,  or  done  by  them,  but  for  Christ's  sake 
alone;  by  imputing  the  obedience  and  the  satis- 
faction of  Christ  unto  them,  they  receiving  and 
resting  upon  Christ,  and  upon  His  righteousness  by 
faith ;  which  faith  they  have  not  of  themselves,  it 
is  the  gift  of  God."*  *  I  sink  in  deep  waters,'  cried 
another  dying  man.  *  All  His  waves  and  His 
billows  go  over  me.'  Then  said  the  other,  '  Be  of 
good  cheer,  my  brother.  I  feel  the  bottom,  and  it 
is  good.' 

'  Being  justified  freely  by  His  grace.'  This  is 
an  instance  of  what  the  rhetoricians  call  reiteration 
and  tautology.  Strictly  speaking,  and  speaking 
coldly,  it  would  be  enough  to  say  either  '  freely,'  or 
to  say — 'by  His  grace.'  Both  expressions,  taken 
literally  and  severely,  are  not  needed.  But  there 
are  some  things  that  cannot  be  reiterated  too 
often,  and  free  grace  is  one  of  them,  and  is  the 
chiefest  of  them.  You  cannot  tell  me  too  often, 
or  with  too  much  emphasis,  that  I  am  a  forgiven 
sinner,  and  that  not  for  works  of  righteousness  that 
I  have  done,  but  by  the  free  grace  of  God.  And 
besides,  the  style  is  the  man.  Paul's  style  is  Paul 
and  Paul  alone.  Paul  is  here  preaching  his  own 
experience,  and  his  own  thoughts  and  feelings 
about  his  own  experience  deeply  colour  and  warmly 

195 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

enrich  his  style  of  writing.  He  is  telling  here  to 
all  that  fear  God  what  God  in  His  free  grace  has 
done  for  his  soul.  Let  this  great  reiteration 
therefore  stand,  if  only  it  helps  in  any  degree  to 
encourage  and  comfort  a  single  sinner,  or  to  assure 
a  single  saint.  Let  it  stand,  indeed,  in  letters  of 
gold  a  finger  deep.  For  it  is  'grace  dyed  in 
grace,'  as  Goodwin  says.  And  again,  it  is 
'  gracious  grace."*  Let  it  stand  ;  for  too  frequent 
or  too  emphatic  repetition  is  impossible  in  this 
great  matter  here  in  hand. 

'  For  the  remission  of  sins  that  are  past  through 
the  forbearance  of  God.'  A  great  preacher  of 
Paul's  gospel,  as  often  as  his  conscience  became 
untender ;  as  often  as  his  faith  and  love  and  holi- 
ness threatened  to  fall  asleep ;  was  wont  to  awaken 
himself  by  going  back  and  taking  a  turn  up  and 
down  among  the  sins  of  his  unregenerate  state, 
and  that  never  failed,  so  he  tells  us,  to  bring  him 
to  his  senses.  Now,  whether  we  are  regenerate  or 
unregenerate,  we  should  be  like  that  great  evan- 
gelical preacher.  We  should,  from  time  to  time, 
and  frequently,  take  a  turn  up  and  down  among 
our  past  sins.  It  would  do  us  good.  It  would 
break  our  hearts,  indeed,  but  it  would  be  our 
salvation.  Let  us  therefore,  and  not  seldom,  go 
back  upon  ourselves  and  say,  '  Look,  O  my  soul,  at 
thy  past  self,  and  past  through  the  forbearance  of 
God.  Look  at  that  place  where  thou  didst  once 
dwell,  and  in  which  thou  didst  live  a  life  of  such 
sin.  And  look  at  that  person — where  is  he  now  ? 
— thy  companion  in  thy  sin.      And  look  often  at 

196 


FAITH  IN  HIS  BLOOD 

those  things  in  thy  past  that  no  one  ever  saw  but 
God  Himself,  whose  forbearance  toward  thee  and 
toward  thy  sins  has  been  so  long  and  so  great/ 
And  when  your  heart  turns  sick  as  you  go  back 
upon  your  past,  betake  yourself  again  to  Cowper'^s 
passage,  and  to  Him  whom  God  hath  set  forth  to 
be  a  propitiation  through  faith  in  His  blood,  for 
the  remission  of  sins  that  are  past  through  the 
forbearance  of  God. 

'  To  declare,  I  say,  at  this  time  His  righteous- 
ness.' 'This  time'  to  Paul  was  just  that  moment 
when  he  sat,  pen  in  hand,  over  this  passage. 
And  then  'this  time'  to  the  Romans  was  the 
first  time  they  read  this  passage,  or  again  heard 
it  read.  But  their  time  is  now  long  past,  and 
our  time  has  this  day  come  to  us.  This,  in  Paul's 
words  in  another  epistle  of  his,  is  our  accepted 
time,  and  our  day  of  salvation.  Now,  is  it  so? 
Or  is  it  to  be  so  ?  All  our  past  sins  close  round 
us  at  this  time,  beseeching  us  to  seek  their  re- 
mission before  the  time  of  remission  is  for  ever 
past.  Now  what  is  your  answer  ?  What  are  you 
intending  to  do  with  those  sins  that  are  past,  but 
are  past  only  through  the  forbearance  of  God.'* 
Are  you  to  go  on  counting  on  His  continued 
forbearance.?  Or  will  you  not  make  His  long- 
suffering  your  salvation,  and  at  this  time  cast 
yourself  and  all  your  sins  on  His  free  and  full 
forgiveness  ?  Which  of  the  two  is  it  to  be  at  this 
time  ?  It  is  for  you  to  say.  For  neither  God 
nor  man  can  say  it  for  you.  Only,  as  ambassadors 
for  Christ,  as  though  God  did  beseech  you  by  us, 

197 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

we  pray  you  in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to 
God,  that  God  may  in  your  case  also  be  just,  and 
the  justifier  of  him  which  believeth  in  Jesus. 

And  then,  *him  which  believeth  in  Jesus'  will  be 
your  true  and  proper  name  from  this  time  hence- 
forward. And  when  once  you  have  attained  to 
that  great  name,  hold  fast  by  it.  At  all  times 
and  in  all  places  look  on  yourself,  and  give  this 
always  as  your  true  and  proper  name  and  address, 
*  him  which  believeth  in  Jesus.'  As  often  as  you 
join  that  great  gospel  preacher,  and  take  a  turn 
with  him  up  and  down  among  the  sins  that  are 
past,  always  begin  that  review  and  end  it  as  a 
believer  in  Jesus.  Never,  for  one  moment,  dare  to 
face  either  your  past  sins  or  your  present  sinful- 
ness, but  as  a  believer  in  Jesus.  And  if  you  have 
been  a  great  transgressor  in  the  past,  and  still  are 
a  great  sinner  in  your  heart,  then,  all  the  more,  be 
a  great  believer  in  Jesus.  Whatever  other  parts 
you  may,  or  may  not,  play  in  life :  whatever  other 
characters  you  may,  or  may  not,  sustain  :  whatever 
other  designations  or  descriptions  you  may,  or  may 
not,  answer  to, — be  in  all,  and  be  above  all,  a  be- 
liever in  Jesus.  All  your  days,  and  above  everything 
else,  practise  believing  in  Jesus  till  you  become  an 
adept  in  that  most  important  of  all  the  arts  and 
accomplishments  of  human  life  in  this  world. 
And  then  when  your  believing  days  on  earth  come 
to  an  end, — What  benefits  do  believers  receive  from 
Christ  at  death  ?  The  souls  of  believers  are,  at 
their  death,  made  perfect  in  holiness,  and  do 
immediately  pass  into  glory,  and  their  bodies  being 
198 


FAITH  IN  HIS  BLOOD 

still  united  to  Christ,  do  rest  in  their  graves  till 
the  resurrection.  And  then, — What  benefits  do 
believers  receive  from  Christ  at  the  resurrection  ? 
At  the  resurrection,  believers  being  raised  up  in 
glory,  shall  be  openly  acknowledged  and  acquitted 
in  the  day  of  judgment,  and  made  perfectly  blessed 
in  the  full  enjoying  of  God  to  all  eternity.  Lord, 
I  believe,  help  Thou  mine  unbelief  1 


199 


THIRD   SERMON 

HIM   THAT  WORKETH   NOT 

TO  HIM  THAT  WORKETH  NOT, 
B  VT  BELIEVETH  ON  HIM  THA  T 
JUSTIFIETH  THE  UNGODLY, 
HIS  FAITH  IS  COUNTED  FOB 
RIGHTEOUSNESS.— Rom.  iv.  5. 

EVERY  great  science,  every  great  art,  every 
great  doctrine  and  discipline,  has  its  own 
special  terminology  ;  its  own  technical  terms,  as 
we  call  them.  Every  new  discovery,  every  new 
invention,  every  new  doctrine  and  development  of 
doctrine,  demands  a  new  name  to  describe  it,  to 
contain  it,  and  to  convey  it.  Now,  though  it  is 
quite  true  that  this  word  '  work  ^  is  one  of  our  most 
familiar  words,  at  the  same  time,  when  the  Apostle 
takes  that  word  up  into  his  great  evangelical 
vocabulary,  he  straightway  fills  that  familiar  word 
of  ours  full  with  all  the  fulness  of  his  own  inward 
and  spiritual  meaning.  He  fills  it  full  with  such 
new  and  such  deep  meanings,  that  it  takes  us  all 
our  days  to  get  this  one  word  of  his  well  into  our 
so  inexperienced  and  so  unspiritual  minds. 

To  work,  in  the  ordinary  and  everyday  sense  of 
that  word,  is  just  to  do  this  and  that  with  our 
hands.     It  is  to  dig,  and  dress,  and  keep  a  garden. 

201 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

It  is  to  plough,  and  sow,  and  reap  a  field.  It  is 
to  found,  and  build,  and  furnish  a  house.  As  the 
fourth  commandment  has  it  :  Six  days  shalt  thou 
labour,  and  do  all  thy  work.  But  there  is  a 
whole  world  of  work  that  is  not  comprehended  in 
the  fourth  commandment.  Master,  said  one  in 
the  Gospel,  which  is  the  great  commandment  of 
the  law  ?  Jesus  said  to  him,  Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbour 
as  thyself.  Now  that  is  the  commandment,  and 
that  is  the  work,  which  the  Apostle  is  continually 
treating  of,  and  not  the  six  days'  work  of  the 
fourth  commandment.  The  grand  commandment 
of  love  embraces  not  only  all  that  we  do  both 
Sabbath-day  and  week-day,  but  much  more  all 
that  we  think  both  Sabbath-day  and  week-day,  and 
all  that  we  feel,  and  all  that  we  desire,  and  all 
that  we  long  after.  To  work,  in  the  Apostle's 
employment  of  the  word,  is  every  beat  of  our 
heart,  and  every  tone  of  our  voice,  and  every 
glance  of  our  eye ;  it  is  every  sigh  of  ours  and 
every  smile.  All  we  are,  and  all  we  have,  and  all 
we  do,  must  be  wholly  given  up  to  God  and  our 
neighbour,  just  as  God  gives  up  Himself  and  our 
neighbour  to  us.  For  God  is  love,  and  love  is 
the  fulfilling  of  all  God's  holy  law. 

Now,  that  being  so,  is  it  not  a  very  startling 
thing  that  the  Apostle  should  say  here  what  he 
does  say  ?  Should  say  that  to  him  that  worketh 
not :  that  is  to  say,  to  him  who  loves  neither  God 
nor  his  neighbour  aright,  such  and  such  great 
202 


HIM  THAT  WORKETH  NOT 

blessings  are  offered  to  him,  and  are  indeed  pressed 
upon  him  ?  What  does  the  Apostle  mean  ?  One 
thing  is  certain,  he  cannot  mean  what,  at  first 
sight,  he  seems  to  mean.  He  cannot  mean  that 
the  man  who  does  not  endeavour  with  all  his 
might  to  love  and  serve  both  God  and  his  neigh- 
bour, can  ever  stand  accepted  before  God.  No. 
But  he  has  the  mind  of  Christ  and  the  message  of 
God  to  us  when  he  says  authoritatively  and  con- 
clusively :  To  him  that  worketh  not ;  that  is  to 
say,  to  him  who  cannot  work ;  to  him  who,  as 
God  is  his  witness,  would  work  if  he  were  only 
able ;  to  him  who  agonises  day  and  night  to  do 
this  work  of  works,  and  who  has  for  ever  given  up 
agonising  after  anything  else ;  to  him  who  sets 
God  and  his  neighbour  before  him  in  everything; 
but  the  things  he  would  fain  do,  both  to  God  and 
his  neighbour,  he  cannot  attain  to  them ;  with  all 
his  sweat,  and  with  all  his  tears,  and  with  all  his 
prayers,  he  cannot  attain  to  them  so  as  to  come 
near  performing  them.  He  works  his  fingers  to 
the  bone ;  he  bows  his  back  to  the  burden  ;  but 
with  it  all,  and  after  it  all,  at  the  end  of  every 
day  he  lays  down  his  day's  work  toward  God  and 
his  neighbour,  not  only  not  done,  but  much  further 
from  being  done  than  it  was  when  he  took  it  up. 
Oh,  wretched  man  that  he  is  !  who  shall  deliver 
him  from  the  body  of  this  death  ?  For  we  know 
that  whatsoever  the  law  saith,  it  saith  to  them 
that  are  under  the  law,  that  every  mouth  may  be 
stopped,  and  all  the  world  may  become  guilty 
before  God. 

203 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

But  what  is  this  that  is  here  preached  from 
God  to  every  man  whose  mouth  is  so  stopped  ? 
What  is  this  new  thing  '  believing,"*  to  which  such 
great  blessings  are  everywhere  promised  ?  Well, 
the  very  first  step  of  all  believing  to  everlasting  life 
is  to  believe  what  is  written  in  the  New  Testament 
concerning  Jesus  Christ.  At  the  same  time,  I  may 
believe  every  word  that  Matthew  and  Mark  and 
Luke  and  John  ever  write  about  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
just  as  I  believe  what  Plutarch  and  Tacitus  write 
about  Julius  Caesar,  and  yet  be  no  better.  That 
is  to  say,  I  may  believe  my  New  Testament  with 
what  our  divines  are  wont  to  call  an  historic  faith. 
Nay,  I  might  even  have  actually  stood  on  Calvary, 
and  might  have  seen  with  my  own  eyes  Jesus  Christ 
on  the  Cross,  and  all  the  time  not  gone  down  to 
my  house  justified.  To  be  justified  by  faith  I  must 
go  on  to  believe  that  God  hath  set  forth  His  Son 
to  be  a  propitiation  for  sin,  through  faith  in  His 
blood,  and  I  must  place  all  my  faith  in  His  blood,  as 
if  He  had  come  and  had  died  on  the  Cross  for  me 
alone.  As  Walter  Marshall  has  it:  '  The  former 
of  these  acts  of  believing  doth  not  immediately 
unite  us  to  Christ,  because  it  termineth  only  on 
the  gospel.  Yet  it  is  a  saving  act,  so  far  as  it 
goes,  because  it  instructeth  and  inclineth  and  dis- 
poseth  the  soul  to  the  latter  act,  whereby  Christ 
Himself  is  immediately  received  into  the  heart. 
He  that  believeth  the  New  Testament  with  hearty 
love  and  liking,  as  the  most  excellent  truth,  will 
certainly,  with  the  like  heartiness,  believe  on  Christ 
for  his  salvation."*  And  thus,  true  saving  faith, 
204 


HIM  THAT  WORKETH  NOT 

once  rooted  in  any  man's  heart,  will,  under  the 
hand  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  grow  up  to  the  full 
assurance  of  faith,  as  we  see  it  in  such  great 
examples  of  full  assurance  as  Abraham,  the  father 
of  the  faithful  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  Paul 
himself,  the  great  preacher  and  pattern  of  faith  in 
the  New  Testament. 

But  though  Walter  Marshall  is  preaching  Paul's 
gospel  when  he  makes  the  saving  act  of  faith  to 
terminate  on  Christ  and  in  His  blood,  at  the 
same  time,  in  this  text,  as  so  often  in  other  texts, 
the  Apostle  carries  up  our  faith  beyond  even 
Christ,  and  beyond  even  His  blood,  and  rests  our 
faith  ultimately  and  finally  on  God  the  Father. 
In  the  Apostle's  soteriology  our  salvation  takes 
its  first  rise  in  the  love  and  the  grace  of  the 
Father,  and  then  both  the  Son  and  the  Spirit 
perform  each  their  proper  part  in  carrying  out  the 
Father's  will.  And  thus  it  is  that  in  this  great 
text  Paul  runs  our  faith  up  to  God  the  Father 
Himself,  and  instructs  us  to  make  our  approach  to 
Him  alone  as  the  'justifier  of  the  ungodly.'  But 
we  greatly  stagger  at  that  name  of  God,  as  at  so 
many  other  of  His  names.  When  we  first  hear 
this  immoral  doctrine,  the  justification  of  the 
ungodly,  we  will  not  have  it.  In  the  interests  of 
truth  and  righteousness,  and  for  the  honour  of 
God,  we  will  not  listen  to  it.  That  the  ungodly 
should  be  justified,  and  the  ungodly  alone — far  be 
it  from   us  to  believe  such  antinomian  teaching  I 

o 

We  can  understand  the  godly  being  justified, 
or  even   the    partly    godly    and    the    partly   un- 

205 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

godly ;  but  not  the  utterly  ungodly.  But  so 
it  is.  In  the  gospel  this  is  one  of  the  many 
mysteries  of  godliness,  that  God  justifieth  the 
ungodly,  and  the  ungodly  alone ;  and  that  as 
ungodly,  and  always  as  ungodly.  The  more 
ungodly  indeed  any  man  is,  the  more  fit  and 
eligible  he  is  for  justification.  It  was  the  godli- 
ness of  the  Pharisee  that  was  his  ruin.  And  it 
was  the  utter  absence  of  all  godliness  in  the 
publican  that  made  it  possible  to  send  him  to  his 
house  justified.  And  so  is  it  in  this  temple  to-day 
also.  Show  me  the  man  among  you  who  feels 
himself  to  be  the  most  ungodly  man  in  the  whole 
congregation.  Show  me  the  man  who  feels  him- 
self to  be  absolutely  made  of  sin,  like  David  and 
Paul,  and  I  will  show  you  the  man  who  is  the 
ripest  of  you  all  for  his  free  and  full  justification ; 
and  who,  if  he  will  only  add  to  his  utter  ungodli- 
ness the  faith  of  the  text,  will  go  down  to  his 
house  established  in  that  peace  of  conscience 
which  passes  all  understanding. 

This  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  is  like 
one  of  the  doctrines  of  the  old  manuscripts.  The 
more  difiicult  to  receive  any  offered  reading  of  an 
old  manuscript,  the  more  unlikely  to  be  true, 
the  harder  the  lection,  the  more  the  scholars  trust 
it,  and  take  it,  and  incorporate  it.  Now  there  is 
nothing  off'ered  to  us  in  the  whole  region  of  salva- 
tion so  hard  to  receive,  and  believe,  and  hold  by, 
as  just  the  doctrine  of  the  text.  The  Jews  would 
not  have  it ;  they  stoned  Paul  because  he  preached 
it.  The  whole  apostleship  itself  was  up  in  arms 
206 


HIM  THAT  WORKETH  NOT 

against  him  because  of  it.  They  condemned  it  as 
an  antinomian  doctrine,  and  they  denounced  him 
who  preached  it.  But  it  held  the  field,  and  it  will 
more  and  more  hold  the  field  wherever  it  is  preached 
in  faith,  and  prayer,  and  alongside  of  a  holy  life, 
as  Paul  preached  it,  and  as  Luther,  and  Hooker, 
and  Bunyan,  and  Marshall,  and  all  the  Puritans, 
and  Chalmers,  and  all  his  sons,  preached  it  in 
Scotland.  '  I  should  be  glad  to  know,'  wrote 
Luther  to  Spentein,  an  Augustinian  monk,  '  what 
is  the  state  of  your  soul.  When  you  and  I  were 
living  together  we  were  both  in  the  greatest  of 
all  errors :  seeking  to  stand  before  God  on  the 
ground  of  our  own  works.  I  am  still  struggling 
against  that  fatal  error,  and  have  not  even  yet 
entirely  triumphed  over  it.  O,  my  dear  brother, 
learn  to  know  Jesus  Christ,  and  Him  crucified. 
Beware  of  pretending  to  such  purity  as  no  longer 
to  confess  thyself  the  chief  of  sinners.  If  our 
labours,  and  obediences,  and  afflictions,  could  have 
given  peace  to  the  conscience,  why  should  Christ 
have  died  on  the  cross  ?  You  will  never  find  true 
peace  till  you  find  it  and  keep  it  in  this  :  that 
Christ  takes  all  your  sins  upon  Himself,  and 
bestows  all  His  righteousness  on  you.'  And  when 
the  Reformation  had  brought  back  the  pulpit  of 
England  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  and  to 
the  article  of  a  standing  or  falling  Church, 
Richard  Hooker  preached  thus  in  his  immortal 
sermon  on  Justification.  I  feel  as  if  I  could  never  re- 
peat the  passage  too  often, — '  Christ  hath  merited 
righteousness  for  as  many  as  are  found  in  Him. 

207 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

And  in  Him  God  findeth  us  if  we  be  believers. 
For  hy  believing  we  are  incorporated  into  Christ. 
Then,  although  in  ourselves  we  be  altogether 
sinful  and  unrighteous,  yet  even  the  man  who  is 
in  himself  impious,  full  of  iniquity,  full  of  sin ; 
him  being  found  in  Christ  through  faith,  and 
having  his  sins  in  hatred  through  repentance — 
him  God  behold eth  with  a  gracious  eye,  and 
accepteth  him  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  perfectly 
righteous  as  if  he  had  fulfilled  all  that  is  com- 
manded in  the  holy  law  of  God — shall  I  say 
accepteth  him  as  more  perfectly  righteous  than  if 
himself  had  fulfilled  the  whole  law  ?  I  must  take 
heed  what  I  say ;  but  the  Apostle  saith,  "  God 
hath  made  Him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no  sin  ; 
that  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God 
in  Him  !  *"  Let  it  be  counted  folly,  or  phrenzy,  or 
fury,  or  whatsoever ;  it  is  our  wisdom  and  our 
comfort.  We  care  for  no  knowledge  in  the  world 
but  this :  that  man  hath  sinned  and  God  hath 
suffered  :  that  God  hath  made  Himself  the  sin  of 
men,  and  that  men  are  made  the  righteousness 
of  God.' 


208 


FOURTH     SERMON 

UNDER   GRACE 

YJE  ABE  NOT  UNDER  THE 
LAW,  BUT  UNDER  GRACE.— 
Rom.  vi.  14. 

'/"^OMFORT  ye,  comfort  ye  my  people,  saith 
V_^  your  God  ;  speak  ye  comfortably  to  Jeru- 
salem.' Now,  the  Apostle  Paul  comforted  the 
people  of  God,  as  they  had  never  been  comforted 
before.  So  completely  did  the  Apostle  fulfil  this 
command,  that  there  arose  a  sect  of  Christians  in 
the  early  Church  who  held  that  Paul  could  be 
none  other  than  the  promised  Comforter  Himself. 
Paul  in  every  epistle  of  his,  and  especially  in  his 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  had  so  comforted  their 
hearts  that  those  early  heretics  began  tc  hold  that 
the  Apostle  must  surely  be  the  Holy  Ghost  Him- 
self made  flesh,  and  ministering  among  sinful  men. 
'  And  I  almost  agree  with  them,'  said  Origen,  in 
his  extraordinary  admiration  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 
'  That  man  Paul,'  said  another,  *  if  he  was  a  man, 
and  no  more.' 

Now,  in  order  to  get  at  the  full  comfort  of  this 
great  scripture,  let  us  ask.  What,  exactly,  is  the 
law  ?     And  what,  exactly,  is  grace  ?     And   then 

O  209 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

we  shall  the  better  see  what  it  is  to  be  under  the 
law,  and  what  it  is  to  be  under  grace. 

Well :  the  law  is  the  law.  And  the  law  can 
never  be  anything  else  but  just  the  law.  God 
Almighty  is  a  righteous  God.  God  is  righteous- 
ness itself.  God  never  can  be  unrighteous  in 
anything  He  is,  or  in  anything  He  says,  or  in 
anything  He  does.  God  is  just  even  in  justifying 
the  ungodly.  God  is  perfect  and  unspotted 
righteousness,  and  the  law  of  God  is  just  His 
perfect  and  unspotted  righteousness  righteously 
administered  over  angels  and  men.  When  it 
seemed  good  to  Him,  Almighty  God  in  His  love 
and  power  and  wisdom,  created  in  knowledge  and 
righteousness  and  holiness  the  race  of  creatures  to 
which  we  belong.  As  Paul  has  it,  mankind  was 
made  under  the  law.  And  as  every  law,  to  be  a 
law,  must  have  its  own  sanctions  and  securities,  its 
own  rewards  and  punishments,  so  had  that  law 
under  which  God  made  man.  '  Of  every  tree  of 
the  garden  thou  may  est  freely  eat  ;  but  of  the  tree 
of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  thou  shalt  not 
eat  of  it :  for  in  the  day  thou  eatest  thereof  thou 
shalt  surely  die."*  A  law  of  God,  with  a  sanction 
and  a  security,  a  reward  and  a  punishment,  alto- 
gether worthy  of  such  a  Lawgiver,  and  of  such 
law-abiding  subjects  as  Adam  and  Eve  had  it  in 
their  power  and  their  free  will  to  be  :  they,  and 
their  children.  And  from  that  primeval  law  there 
were  drawn  out  afterwards  the  ten  command- 
ments of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  two 
commandments  of  the  New  Testament :  perfect 
210 


UNDER  GRACE 

love  to  God,  and  perfect  love  to  all  men.  Now, 
we  know  that  whatsoever  the  law  saith,  it  saith  to 
them  who  are  under  the  law,  that  every  mouth 
may  be  stopped,  and  all  the  world  may  become 
guilty  before  God.  That  is  the  law,  and  that  is 
what  it  is  to  be  under  the  law. 

And  then,  what  is  grace  ?  Grace  is  love.  But 
grace  is  not  love  simply,  and  purely,  and  alone. 
Grace  and  love  are,  in  their  innermost  essence,  one 
and  the  same  thing.  Only,  grace  is  love  adapting 
itself  to  certain  special  circumstances.  As,  for 
instance,  love  may  exist  between  equals,  or  it  may 
rise  to  those  who  are  above  it,  or  it  may  flow  down 
to  those  who  are  beneath  it.  But  grace  has  only 
one  direction  that  it  can  take.  Grace  always  flows 
down.  And  thus  it  is  that  sovereigns  are  said  to 
be  gracious  to  their  subjects.  But  though  a 
subject  may  loyally  and  truly  and  devotedly  love 
his  sovereign,  yet  the  most  loving  of  subjects 
is  never  said  to  be  gracious  to  his  sovereign. 
Because  grace  always  flows  down.  Now,  among 
many  other  relations  that  God  holds  to  us, 
He  is  our  Sovereign,  and  therefore  His  love  to 
us  is  always  called  His  sovereign  grace.  It  is 
called  mercy  also,  because  we  are  in  misery  on 
account  of  our  sin.  But  it  is  called  grace  above 
all,  because  we  are  not  only  in  an  estate  of  sin  and 
misery,  but  because  we  are  so  infinitely  beneath 
God,  and  are  in  that  and  in  every  other  way  so 
utterly  unworthy  of  His  love.  And  thus  it  is  that 
with  its  infinite  condescension  toward  us,  grace  has 
the  most  absolute  freeness  in  all  its  outgoings  and 

211 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

down-flowings  also.  And  as  grace  is  free,  so  is  it 
sure.  Nothing  can  change,  or  alter,  or  turn  away, 
sovereign  grace.  And,  with  all  that,  it  is  uncon- 
ditional. That  is  to  say,  as  no  merit  of  mortal 
man  ever  drew  down  on  him  the  grace  of  God,  so 
no  demerit  and  no  ill-desert  of  any  man  on  whom 
it  has  once  rested,  will  ever  cause  that  grace  to  be 
withdrawn.  It  is  not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should 
boast.  Therefore  it  is  of  faith,  that  it  might  be 
by  grace ;  to  the  end  the  promise  might  be  sure  to 
all  the  seed.  If  by  grace,  then  it  is  no  more  of 
works  ;  otherwise  grace  is  no  more  grace.  Grace, 
then,  is  grace, — that  is  to  say,  it  is  sovereign,  it  is 
free,  it  is  sure,  it  is  unconditional,  and  it  is 
everlasting. 

Now  from  all  this,  keep  it  always  well  in 
mind,  that  the  law  is  the  law,  and  that  grace  is 
grace.  And  that  the  law  can  never  say  but  this 
one  thing  :  Do  and  live.  And  every  day  that  you 
try  to  do  the  law  of  God,  and  to  live  by  doing  it, 
you  will  be  right  glad  to  remember  that  the  law  is 
the  law,  and  that  grace  is  grace.  For  if  the  law 
continually  commands  what  you  cannot  do,  then 
and  there  grace  comes  forward,  always  true  to 
herself:  always  promising,  and  offering,  and 
bestowing.  '  The  gospel,'  says  John  Wesley,  '  is 
one  great  promise."*  Just  as  the  law  is  one  great 
command.  Keep  that  deep  and  everlasting  distinc- 
tion and  difference  ever  before  you,  and  continually 
make  application  of  it  to  all  that  is  within  you. 
And  that  simple  definition  and  distinction,  kept 
ever  in  mind,  will  save  you  many  a  hard  day  and 
212 


UNDER  GRACE 

many  a  dark  night.  Keep  well  under  grace,  as  the 
text  has  it.  Be  well  taught  in  grace.  Read  the 
books  of  grace.  Sit  under  the  preachers  of  grace. 
Offer  the  prayers  of  grace.  Sing  the  psalms,  and 
hymns,  and  spiritual  songs,  of  grace.  And  do  the 
works  of  grace.  For  grace  has  her  own  works 
also.  Then  said  they  unto  Him,  What  shall  we 
do  that  we  might  work  the  works  of  God  .^ 
Jesus  answered,  and  said  unto  them  :  This  is  the 
work  of  God,  that  ye  believe  on  Him  whom  God 
hath  sent.  And  again,  this  is  His  command- 
ment, that  we  should  believe  on  the  name  of  His 
Son  Jesus  Christ,  and  love  one  another,  as  He  gave 
us  commandment.  Learn  to  say  about  grace  what 
Paul  said  on  Mars'  hill  about  the  God  both  of 
nature  and  of  grace.  Learn  to  say.  For  in  grace 
we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being.  You  can- 
not say  that  about  the  law.  Paul,  with  all  his 
obedience,  could  not  say  that  about  the  law.  *  I 
was  alive  without  the  law  once,"*  says  Paul  about 
himself ;  *  but  when  the  commandment  came, 
sin  revived,  and  I  died.'  For  the  law  always  kills. 
It  came,  indeed,  to  kill,  in  order  that  grace  might 
make  alive.  If  life  could  have  come  by  the  law, 
then  grace  had  come  in  vain.  No  mortal  man  has 
ever  lived,  to  be  called  life,  under  the  law.  But 
grace  brings  true  and  everlasting  life.  Live, 
then,  in  grace,  and  in  nothing  else.  Rise  up 
every  morning  in  grace.  Congratulate  yourself 
every  morning  as  you  awake,  and  say,  O  my 
soul,  we  are  not  under  the  law,  but  under 
grace.       Go     out     to    your     day's     work    under 

213 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

grace.  And  return  home,  and  lie  down  on  your 
bed  again,  ever  more  and  more  under  grace. 
Live,  and  die,  and  rise  again,  and  go  to  judgment, 
and  go  to  heaven  itself,  and  all  under  grace.  The 
last  words  of  Mr.  Honest  were,  Grace  reigns.  So 
he  left  the  world. 


214 


FIFTH    SERMON 

THE  LIFE  OF  FAITH 

THE    JUST    SHALL    LIVE    BY 
FAITH.— Rom.  i.  17. 

THE  Bible,  both  Old  Testament  and  New,  is 
full  of  faith  and  the  life  of  faith.  The 
Bible  may  be  said  to  be  a  book  for  believers  and 
for  believers  alone.  You  iieed  not  open  the 
Bible  unless  you  are  already  a  believer,  or  are 
willing,  by  its  help,  to  become  a  believer.  For, 
from  Genesis  to  Revelation,  the  Bible  is  written 
by  believers,  about  believers,  and  for  believers. 
The  Hebrew  prophets  preached  all  their  sermons 
to  believers,  and  the  Hebrew  psalmists  composed 
all  their  psalms  for  the  use  of  believers.  And, 
coming  down  to  New  Testament  times,  Jesus 
Christ  Himself  began  His  life  on  earth  by 
being  nothing  else  but  a  believer.  All  His  life 
on  earth  he  went  about  looking  everywhere  for 
believers.  And  as  often  as  He  found  another 
believer,  that  gave  Him  meat  to  eat  that  other 
men  knew  not  of.  And  open  Paul  where  you 
please,  and  you  have  faith  and  the  life  of  faith  in 
every  epistle  of  his.  If  any  epistle  has  not  faith 
and  the  life  of  faith  in  it,  you  may  be  sure  it  is 

215 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

no  true  epistle  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  Paul  him- 
self, after  the  Man  Jesus  Christ,  was  the  greatest 
believer  that  ever  lived.  And  he  will  make  you 
the  greatest  believer  now  living,  if  you  will  give 
your  days  and  nights  to  nothing  else  but  to  his 
epistles.  And.  if  you  are  well  advised,  you  will 
do  that.  For  there  is  no  other  occupation  of  the 
mind  for  one  moment  to  be  compared  with  the 
study  of  Paul  on  the  objects  of  faith  and  on  the 
life  of  faith.  It  is  the  most  intellectual  of  all 
studies,  and  it  is  the  most  spiritual  of  all  studies, 
and  it  is  the  only  study  that  you  will  take  up 
again  in  heaven  just  at  the  point  where  you  laid 
it  down  at  the  moment  of  your  death  on  earth. 
Faith,  in  all  her  objects,  and  in  all  her  exercises, 
is  the  very  queen  of  studies.  All  other  arts  and 
sciences,  all  other  literatures  and  philosophies,  all 
other  pursuits  and  accomplishments  are,  at  their 
very  best,  but  the  companions  and  the  hand- 
maidens of  faith. 

And  then,  faith  is  such  a  sovereign  that  she  has 
a  whole  universe  of  things  under  her  sole  and 
sovereign  sway.  As  the  whole  world  of  things 
tangible  is  wholly  put  under  our  sense  of  touch ; 
and  as  the  whole  world  of  things  visible  is  wholly 
given  up  to  our  sense  of  sight ;  and  as  that  other 
world  of  things  audible  belongs  to  our  sense  of 
hearing,  and  to  that  sense  alone  :  so  is  the  whole 
unseen  world,  and  all  that  it  contains,  absolutely 
delivered  over  to  our  faith.  So  much  is  this  the 
case,  that  the  whole  spiritual  and  eternal  world 
has  as  good  as  no  existence  to  him  who  has  not 
216 


THE  LIFE  OF  FAITH 

faith.  In  the  words  of  inspiration — they  have  no 
substance  and  no  evidence  to  him  vv^ho  has  not 
faith.  Almighty  God,  His  Son  Jesus  Christ,  the 
atoning  blood  and  the  justifying  righteousness  of 
Jesus  Christ  ;  heaven  and  its  everlasting  blessed- 
ness ;  and  all  the  things  that  are  akin  to  these 
things,  have  no  existence  to  him  who  has  not 
faith.  And  no  man  needs  Holy  Scripture  to  tell 
him  that.  We  all  know  that  in  ourselves.  There 
are  times  with  us  all  when  to  us  there  is  neither 
God  nor  Christ,  nor  heaven  nor  hell.  And  again, 
there  are  other  times  when  there  is  nothing  in  all 
the  world  but  just  these  unseen  things.  All  these 
things  come  and  go  to  us  just  according  to  our 
faith.  Nothing  could  be  a  better  definition  and 
description  of  faith  than  just  that  famous  defini- 
tion and  description,  that  faith  is  the  substance 
of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not 
seen. 

Now,  the  just  shall  live  by  faith,  says  the 
Apostle  in  the  text.  Yes.  But  who,  exactly, 
are  the  just,  and  where  are  they  to  be  found 
among  sinful  men  ?  My  brethren,  the  only  just 
man  is  the  man  who  has  been  justified.  He  is 
the  same  man  whose  mouth  was  once  stopped 
and  which  has  never  again  been  opened  to  justify 
himself,  and  who  has  therefore  been  taken  by  God 
and  has  been  justified  and  accepted  in  His  Son 
Jesus  Christ.  But  what  exactly  is  it  to  be  justi- 
fied .?  What  is  justification  ?  Justification  is  an 
act  of  GocCs  free  grace,  wherein  He  pardoneth  all 
our  sins,  and  accepteth  us  as  righteous  in  His  sight, 

217 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

only  for  the  righteousness  of  Christ  impiited  to  ns 
and  received  hy  faith  alone.  That,  then,  is  the  just 
man  of  the  text.  There  is  no  other  just  man,  nor 
will  ever  be.  The  only  just  man  is  the  justified 
man  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  and  the  Shorter 
Catechism.  And  he  will  know,  and  will  be  sure, 
that  he  is  a  justified  man  just  according  as  he 
lives  by  faith. 

And  he  lives,  for  one  thing,  by  his  faith  in  his 
Bible.  The  Bible  is  more  to  every  believer  than 
his  necessary  food.  O  how  love  I  Thy  law  !  is 
his  constant  ejaculation.  It  is  my  meditation  all 
the  day.  More  to  be  desired  are  they  than  gold, 
yea,  than  much  fine  gold.  Sweeter  also  than 
honey  and  the  honeycomb.  The  Psalms  are 
written  in  letters  of  gold  to  the  eye  of  faith,  and 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  is  the  very  marrow  of 
lions  to  the  taste  of  faith.  Show  me  a  believing 
man,  and  I  will  show  you  a  justified  man,  and, 
withal,  a  man  who  is  never  out  of  his  Bible. 
What  else  would  you  have  him  to  read  ?  I  would 
like  to  hear  you  urging  some  of  your  favourite 
reading  on  him.  I  would  like  you  to  tell  him 
where  else  but  in  his  Bible  such  faith  as  his  could 
be  fed.  Where  else  could  he  get  songs  for  the 
house  of  his  pilgrimage  ?  And  shoes  for  his  feet, 
and  a  staff  for  his  hand  ?  And  his  whole  furniture 
for  his  life  of  faith,  and  for  his  death  of  victory? 
Yes  :  depend  upon  it,  the  just  man  will  live,  and 
move,  and  have  his  whole  being,  in  his  Bible,  and 
in  books  that  have  been  drawn  out  of  his  Bible. 

But  the  just  man's  Bible  is  all  that  to  him, 
2l8 


THE  LIFE  OF  FAITH 

because  Christ  is  in  his  Bible.  To  me  to  live  is 
Christ,  is  PauFs  constant  protestation.  Christ  is 
everything  to  Paul  :  absolutely  everything.  Christ 
is  made  of  God  to  Paul  wisdom,  and  righteousness, 
and  sanctification,  and  redemption.  Name  any- 
thing to  Paul  that  you  think  he  needs ;  claim 
anything  from  Paul  that  you  think  he  owes  you  ; 
put  Paul  into  any  position  you  like,  even  into 
prison,  even  into  death  and  hell  itself,  and  Paul 
is,  that  moment,  complete  in  Christ.  But,  while 
all  fulness  dwells  in  Christ,  it  is  His  blood  that 
Paul's  faith  is  found  dealing  with  oftenest.  Never 
had  any  man's  faith  a  bolder  scope,  or  a  vaster 
sweep,  than  Paul's  faith  in  Christ.  But  it  is  on 
Christ's  blood  that  Paul's  faith  oftenest  gazes,  and 
always  puts  its  trust.  'The  object  of  faith,'  says 
Dr.  Christian  Baur  in  his  great  book  on  Paul^  'is 
narrowed  in  Paul  stage  by  stage.  And  in  propor- 
tion as  this  is  done,  Paul's  faith  becomes  more 
intense  and  more  inward.  From  mere  theoretical 
assent  Paul's  faith  becomes  a  practical  trust,  which 
has  for  its  one  object  the  blood  of  Christ.'  Exactly 
true,  and  excellently  said.  There  is  no  limit  to 
the  scope  and  sweep  of  Paul's  faith.  Everything 
that  Christ  is  as  the  God-Man  ;  everything  that 
Christ  has  done,  is  doing,  or  ever  will  do,  is  all 
Paul's  by  faith.  But,  here  and  now,  it  is  His  blood 
that  is  the  one  thing  needful  to  Paul,  and  com- 
pared with  which,  there  is  nothing  else  for  one 
moment  to  be  called  needful.  Paul  preached 
Christ  in  all  His  offices  as  He  has  never  been 
preached  since.      But  all  the  time  Paul  was  such  a 

219 


THE  APOSTLE  PAUL 

sinner,  and  he  was  preaching  to  such  sinners,  that 
Christ  crucified  was  his  one  determination  as  a 
preacher.  They  are  his  own  words :  'For  I  am  deter- 
mined not  to  know  anything  among  you  save  Jesus 
Christ,  and  Him  crucified.'  Paul  not  only  at  the 
gate  of  Damascus,  but  even  in  the  apostolic  pulpit, 
was  always  in  himself  a  condemned  man.  But  who 
is  this  that  cometh  from  Edom,  with  dyed  garments 
from  Bozrah  ?  Wherefore  art  thou  red  in  thine 
apparel,  and  thy  garments  like  him  that  treadeth 
the  winefat  ?  Lo  !  this  is  He  whom  God  hath 
set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  through  faith  in  His 
blood.  This  is  He  on  whom  the  Lord  laid  the 
iniquity  of  us  all.  Yes :  every  day,  and  in  every 
place,  Paul's  past  sins,  and  his  ever-present  sin- 
fulness, would  be  a  millstone  about  his  neck ;  he 
would  be  beside  himself;  he  would  be  in  hell 
already,  but  for  the  blood  of  Christ.  Most  true, 
the  just  man  lives  by  his  faith  in  his  Bible.  But 
that  is  so  because  his  Bible  is  so  full  to  him  of  the 
blood  of  Christ. 

Be  believers,  then,  my  brethren.  Practise  be- 
lieving continually,  and  in  connection  with  every- 
thing that  happens  to  you.  If  you  have  been 
great  transgressors  in  the  past,  and  if  you  are  still 
great  sinners  in  your  heart,  be  correspondingly 
great  believers  in  Christ.  Be  much  in  the 
believer^s  Bible,  and  be  less  and  less  in  every  other 
book  that  does  not  draw  its  inspiration  out  of  the 
believer's  Bible.  But,  especially,  let  your  faith  in 
the  blood  of  Christ  prosper  and  grow  stronger 
and  stronger  every  day.  Go  about  through  life 
220 


THE  LIFE  OF  FAITH 

believing  in  the  blood  of  Christ  at  all  times  and  in 
all  places.  As  your  sinfulness  pours  out  of  your 
heart  upon  you  continually,  never  stopping,  but 
running  the  more  the  more  you  try  to  stop  it ;  so 
there  is  over  against  your  sinful  heart  a  fountain 
filled  with  blood,  and  that  fountain  will  flow  as 
long  as  your  sinful  heart  flows.  Have  faith  in 
that  blood,  then.  Live  by  faith  in  that  blood. 
And  when  you  come  to  die,  die  believing  in  that 
blood.  And,  so  dying,  you  will  rise  again  believing 
for  the  last  time.  For  at  their  deaths  the  souls  of 
believers  are  made  perfect  in  holiness,  and  do 
immediately  pass  into  glory.  And  then,  at  the 
resurrection,  believers,  being  raised  up  in  glory, 
shall  be  openly  acknowledged  and  acquitted  in  the 
day  of  judgment,  and  made  perfectly  blessed  in  the 
full  enjoying  of  God  to  all  eternity.      Amen. 


221 


AN   APPRECIATION 

OP 

WALTER    MARSHALL 

THE  MOST  PAULINE  OF  DIVINES 


WALTER    MARSHALL 

AND  HIS  BOOK,  '  THE  GOSPEL-MYSTERY 
OF    SANCTIFICATION 

AN   APPRECIATION 

WILLIAM  COWPER  writes  thus  in  one  of 
his  classical  letters  :  *  The  book  you 
mention  lies  now  on  my  table.  Marshall  is  an  old 
acquaintance  of  mine.  I  think  Marshall  one  of 
the  best  writers,  and  one  of  the  most  spiritual  ex- 
positors of  Scripture  I  ever  read.  I  never  met  a 
man  who  understood  the  plan  of  salvation  better, 
or  who  was  more  happy  in  explaining  it  to  others.' 
And  James  Hervey,  the  well-known  author  of 
Theron  and  Aspasio,  says  of  Marshall's  book  :  *  It 
has  been  one  of  the  most  useful  books  to  my  own 
soul.  I  scarce  ever  fail  to  receive  spiritual  con- 
solation and  strength  from  the  perusal  of  it.  And, 
was  I  to  be  banished  into  some  desolate  island, 
possessed  of  only  two  books  beside  my  Bible, 
this  should  be  one  of  the  two,  perhaps  the  very 
first  I  would  choose.'  The  saintly  Robert  Trail 
also  says  :  '  Mr.  Marshall  was  a  holy  and  retired 
man,  known  only  to  the  world  by  this  one  book, 

P  225 


WALTER  MARSHALL 

which  is  deep,  practical,  well-connected,  and  re- 
quiring a  more  than  ordinary  attention  to  read  it 
with  profit.  Its  great  excellence  is  that  it  leads 
the  serious  reader  directly  and  immediately  to 
Jesus  Christ/  And  Adam  Gib  of  Edinburgh 
used  to  say  of  Marshall :  '  I  have  scarcely  ever 
been  acquainted  with  any  practical  treatise  of 
human  product  so  evangelical,  in  a  thread  more 
correct  and  a  method  more  exact  than  this/  '  Did 
I  ever  speak  to  you  about  Marshall  on  Sancti- 
fication  ?  '  asks  Dr.  Chalmers.  '  He  is  at  present 
my  daily  companion.'  And  Dr.  Andrew  Murray 
of  South  Africa  says  in  his  introduction  to  a  most 
excellent  abridgment  of  Marshall :  '  There  is  but 
one  book  in  the  English  language  admitted  by  all 
to  be  the  standard  book  on  sanctification.  It  is 
the  work  of  the  Rev.  Walter  Marshall,  published 
in  1692.  It  has  at  all  times  received  the  highest 
praise  from  men  of  eminence  both  as  theologians 
and  saints.**  And  Dr.  Elder  Cumming  once  said 
to  the  present  writer :  '  Ah  !  Walter  Marshall  is 
just  Keswick  for  theologians  and  men  of  mind.' 
And  Dr.  Laidlaw  in  a  like  conversation  :  '  Marshall 
is  simply  the  last  word  on  the  subject.' 

Walter  Marshall's  one  book  is  but  a  small  book 
in  bulk,  and  his  life  is  like  his  book.  He  was 
born  in  1638.  He  was  educated  at  Oxford.  He 
was  settled  in  Hursley.  He  declared  for  Presby- 
tery. He  was  cast  out  of  his  parish.  He  profited 
greatly  himself  by  his  preaching :  from  its  efficacy 
on  his  own  heart  he  attained  to  very  uncommon 
degrees  of  faith  and  holiness  and  comfort.  He 
226 


AN  APPRECIATION 

had  been  for  long  in  great  darkness  as  to  the  way 
of  attaining  to  true  holiness  and  true  peace.  He 
consulted  Richard  Baxter  and  Thomas  Goodwin, 
among  others.  After  he  had  confessed  to  Goodwin 
many  sins  in  his  heart  and  in  his  life,  Goodwin 
replied,  '  You  have  forgotten  to  mention  the 
greatest  sin  of  all.  The  great  sin  of  not  believing 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  both  for  the  remission 
of  sins,  and  for  holiness  of  heart.' 

In  reading  such  authors  as  Hooker,  and 
Leighton,  and  Owen,  and  Goodwin,  and  Rutherford, 
and  Edwards,  we  continually  come  upon  this  ex- 
pression,— the  mystical  union.  Now,  that  is  a 
theological  and  an  experimental  expression.  The 
thing  is  in  the  Scriptures,  though  not  the  exact 
words.  The  Scriptures,  indeed,  are  full  of  the 
thing.  And  that  so  expressive  phrase  has  been 
coined  by  our  great  evangelical  theologians  in  order 
to  convey  to  the  mind  a  certain  picture  of  that 
glorious  relationship  which  is  constituted  between 
Christ  and  the  soul,  when  the  soul  is  once  truly 
united  to  Christ,  and  is,  as  it  were,  incorporated 
into  Christ.  Now,  Paul  is  the  great  apostle  of 
the  mystical  union.  The  mystical  union  is  in 
every  epistle  of  his,  it  might  almost  be  said  that 
the  mystical  union  is  in  every  chapter  of  his.  For 
Christ,  and  the  believer  in  Christ,  is  Paul's  con- 
stant theme.  We  are  chosen  in  Christ  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world.  We  are  accepted  in  the 
Beloved.  It  hath  pleased  the  Father  that  in  Him 
should  all  fulness  dwell.  And  ye  are  complete  in 
Him,  for  in  Him  dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the 

227 


WALTER  MARSHALL 

Godhead  bodily.  Rooted  and  built  up  in  Him, 
we  are  to  grow  up  into  Him  in  all  things,  which 
is  the  Head,  even  Christ.  Compared  with  Christ 
and  the  mystical  union  of  believers  with  Christ, 
Paul  as  good  as  knows  nothing,  either  in  his 
preaching  or  in  his  epistles.  And  in  this  Marshall 
is  a  '  right  Pauline  divine,'  as  Luther  says.  This 
is  what  Dr.  Murray  says  on  this  subject.  '  In 
chapter  three  Marshall  teaches  us  how  in  Jesus 
Christ  a  new  nature  was  prepared  for  the  believer ; 
how  the  needed  endowments  for  living  holily  are 
provided  for  in  that  new  nature,  and  how  this  is 
communicated  to  us  through  our  living  union  with 
Christ.  The  beauty  of  Marshall's  book  is  that  he 
makes  the  Mystical  Union  the  starting-point  in 
the  Christian  course.  He  points  out  how  by  faith 
the  sinner  receives  Christ  and  His  salvation  : 
how  justification  and  sanctification  are  both  given 
in  Christ,  and  received  only  through  the  faith  that 
unites  to  Him.  In  our  union  to  Christ,  realised 
by  faith  from  day  to  day,  and  in  each  duty  we 
perform,  is  the  only,  but  the  sufficient,  strength  for 
a  holy  life.'  And  Dr.  Murray  adds,  '  Let  me  in 
conclusion  urge  every  believer  who  longs  to  under- 
stand better  the  secret  of  a  holy  life,  to  take  time 
for  the  study  of  this  little  book.  He  need  be 
afraid  of  no  new  doctrine,  though  the  distinct- 
ness and  the  point  may  make  it  appear  new.  But 
let  no  one  imagine  that  a  hasty  reading  of  this 
book  will  do  him  any  good.  Let  him  return  and 
read  more  than  once  or  twice,  till  mind  and  heart 
become  familiarised  with  the  blessed  truth  of  a 
228 


AN  APPRECIATION 

sinner  on  earth  living  and  speaking  and  acting 
daily  and  hourly  as  a  saint,  and  that  in  the 
power  of  a  holiness  dwelling  in  heaven,  because 
the  life  of  Jesus  is  his  life.  And  I  cannot  but 
think  that  such  a  reader  will  find  our  writer  to 
be  indeed  God's  messenger  to  guide  him  into 
God's  highway  of  holiness,  and  into  a  life  of 
peace  and  power  before  unknown.'  Walter  Mar- 
shall has  found  an  editor  worthy  of  himself  in 
Andrew  Murray. 

And  now,  to  close  with,  take  one  or  two  of 
Marshall's  many  striking  sentences  that  arrest  us 
in  the  course  of  our  reading  of  *  The  Gospel- 
Mystery.' 

On  the  law  of  love  he  says  incidentally, — *  Take 
notice,  that  the  law  which  is  your  mark,  is  ex- 
ceeding broad,  and  yet  not  the  more  easy  to  be 
hit :  because  you  must  aim  to  hit  it  in  every  duty 
of  it,  with  a  performance  of  equal  breadth,  or 
else  you  do  not  hit  it  all.'  And  his  whole  argu- 
ment revolves  round  such  a  passage  as  this : 
'  Many  men,  who  are  seriously  devout,  take  a  great 
deal  of  pains  to  mortify  their  corrupted  nature 
by  pressing  vehemently  upon  their  hearts  many 
motives  to  holiness ;  labouring  importunately  to 
squeeze  good  affections  out  of  their  hearts,  as  oil 
out  of  a  flint.  On  this  account  they  think  the 
entrance  into  a  holy  life  to  be  harsh  and  un- 
pleasing,  because  it  costs  so  much  struggling  with 
their  evil  hearts  to  new-frame  them.  If  they  only 
knew  that  this  way  of  entrance  into  a  holy  life 
is  not  only  harsh  and  unpleasant,  but  altogether 

229 


WALTER  MARSHALL 

impossible ;  and  that  the  true  way  to  mortify  sin 
and  quicken  their  hearts  to  holiness  is  by  receiving 
a  new  nature  out  of  the  fulness  of  Christ ;  and 
that  we  do  no  more  to  the  production  of  a  new 
nature  than  to  the  production  of  original  sin, 
though  we  do  more  to  the  reception  of  it, — if  they 
only  knew  this,  they  might  save  themselves  many 
a  bitter  agony,  and  employ  their  endeavours  to 
enter  in  at  the  strait  gate  in  such  a  way  as 
would  be  far  more  pleasant  and  successful.*'  And 
again  :  '  The  old  man,  the  body  of  sin,  is  destroyed 
in  us,  not  by  any  wounds  that  we  ourselves  can 
give  to  it,  but  by  our  partaking  of  that  freedom 
from  it,  that  death  unto  it,  that  is  already  wrought 
out  for  us  by  the  death  of  Christ.  Therefore  we 
must  be  content  to  leave  the  natural  man  vile  and 
wicked,  as  we  found  it,  until  it  be  utterly  de- 
stroyed by  death,  though  we  must  not  allow  its 
wickedness.'  And  again  :  '  Nature  remains  wicked, 
and  only  wicked,  even  after  we  have  put  on  Christ."* 
And  again :  '  As  our  natural  corruption  was 
produced  originally  in  the  first  Adam,  and  was 
propagated  from  him  to  us  :  so  our  new  nature  is 
produced  first  in  Christ,  and  is  derived  from  Him 
to  us ;  or,  as  it  were,  propagated.'  And  to  wind 
up  :  '  Christ  would  have  us  believe  on  Him  that 
justifieth  the  ungodly  ;  and  therefore  He  doth  not 
require  us  to  be  godly  before  we  believe.  He 
came  as  a  physician  to  the  sick,  and  He  does 
not  expect  that  they  shall  recover  their  health  in 
the  least  degree  before  they  come  to  Him.  The 
vilest  sinners  tixe.  fitly  prepared  anv^  qualified  for 
230 


AN  APPRECIATION 

this  design,  which  is  to  show  forth  the  exceeding 
riches  of  grace.  For  this  end  the  law  of  Moses 
entered,  that  the  offence  might  abound  :  so  that, 
where  sin  abounded,  grace  might  much  more 
abound.' 


Printed  by  T,  and  A.  Constable,  Printers  to  His  Majesty, 
at  the  Edinburgh  University  Press 


Princeton  Theoloqical  Senjinarv  Libraries 


1    1012  01249  5000 


Date  Due 

i^iO'25'S- 

AG  51 '54 

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I 

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